The Stories

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Thinking about the stories I want to tell my kid. I’ve realised that I don’t have an organised body of stories to tell them—the myths, fables, and folk tales that I grew up with, that add wonder and colour and a basic sense of the threads that tie humans and the world they live in together. I’d like to be an active storyteller, and not just someone who watches interesting stories with their kids (not that there’s anything inherently wrong with movies, games, plays, or TV shows).
I grew up with a lot of stories in cartoons and video games, and the movies that would play on TV (The Iron Giant on Cartoon Network basically twice a month). I love those stories, but I’m worried about the amount of socialisation my kid will be getting. I really want to make sure that I’m present in their lives.
Working in a hospital emergency department for so many years, I saw so many parents simply relegate the duty of parenting to the iPad. Instead of trying to talk to and comfort their child, or simply to talk and bond, they gave them an iPad and stayed on their phones. It’s the same on the bus. These kids always light up when I talk to them, and it’s like their parents have this realisation that they can have conversations with their child. I’m really scared for those children and I’m anxious about the kind of peers my future children will grow up with.