So my kid’s been fighting bedtime like crazy lately, and I remembered seeing those “super short bedtime stories” pins all over Pinterest. Figured I’d give it a shot – how hard could it be to write a few super tiny tales, right?
Well, let me tell you, Day One was a disaster. I scribbled down three stories, each like three sentences long. Thought they were gold. Read ’em to my daughter – she just stared at me like I’d grown horns. “That’s it?” she says. “Where’s the dragon?” Kid looked genuinely offended. Back to square one.
Tried again Wednesday night. Made the stories longer – maybe five whole sentences each! Added a dragon in one, a talking banana in another (kid loves bananas). Got halfway through before she interrupted: “Why banana talk? Bananas don’t talk.” Then she asked seventeen questions about banana anatomy. Ended up explaining fruit biology at 9 PM. Total failure.
Thursday? Went scavenger hunting online for examples. Found tons of “two-sentence stories” claiming toddlers loved them. Tried reading some aloud to myself – sounded ridiculous. Like those awful fortune cookies trying too hard. Couldn’t imagine my kid buying this stuff. My coffee got cold while I stressed over moon princesses and squirrel astronauts.
Friday night, desperate. Wrote a four-line story about a grumpy cloud who rained marshmallows. Practiced it with dramatic voices. Kid listened silently… then burst into tears because “marshmallows are sticky and would hurt cloud friends.” Had to abandon ship, read The Gruffalo for the hundredth time instead. Felt my whole “super short” idea crumbling.
The final nail? This morning at breakfast, kiddo announced unprompted: “Daddy, those tiny stories? Not good.” Just straight up rejected the whole concept. My creativity ran drier than desert sand. Couldn’t force out another dumb little tale if my life depended on it.
So here’s what I learned:
Short ain’t simple – squeezing plot into three sentences is like stuffing an elephant into a Mini Cooper.
Pinterest lies – those cute story snippets look great in pastel fonts but bomb hard at actual bedtime.
Kids smell laziness – they’d rather hear familiar books than half-baked micro-tales that make no sense.
Took five nights to figure out what my four-year-old knew immediately: super short bedtime stories?
They’re pretty much useless. Stick to the classics, ditch the Pinterest hacks. Now I’ve got a kid demanding proper stories, three wasted notebooks of terrible tiny tales, and zero faith in “parenting shortcuts.” Not doing it again. Screw this.
