--- title: "What I Was Like at Your Age: Childhood Stories to Tell Your Kids" description: "Tell the small, specific stories: the time you got in trouble, your first pet, what scared you, what you ate. Kids want the real you at their age, not a lesson." author: "Roey Gran" category: "Stories for Your Kids" date: 2026-10-05T05:20:00.550Z canonical: "https://tryglow.ai/blog/what-i-was-like-at-your-age-childhood-stories-to-tell-your-kids" --- # What I Was Like at Your Age: Childhood Stories to Tell Your Kids ![A father sitting on a bed telling a story to two young children at bedtime](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1758687126048-4790d3d7e4ea?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4OTQwNjJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxmYXRoZXIlMjB0ZWxsaW5nJTIwc3RvcnklMjBjaGlsZHJlbnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzkwODU3MDQ3fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) > Tell the small, specific stories: the time you got in trouble, your first pet, what scared you, what you ate. Kids want the real you at their age, not a lesson. "Did you ever get in trouble when you were little?" Your daughter asks it at dinner, fork halfway to her mouth, and the whole table goes quiet. Your partner raises an eyebrow. You suddenly remember the time you painted the neighbour's cat. (It was fine. The cat was fine.) That question is the door. **The best stories to tell your kids about your childhood are small, specific and a little bit imperfect:** the trouble you got into, your first pet, the friend you'd do anything for, what you were scared of, and what life looked like when you were exactly their age. They don't want a lesson. They want to meet you at seven. ## Why your "ordinary" childhood is interesting to them Most parents think their childhood was too boring to tell. No adventures, no drama, just school and a bike and a lot of television. But to your children, that world is as strange as a foreign country. You had a landline in the hallway. You waited a week to see the next episode. You walked to a friend's house and just knocked. Family stories also give children a sense of where they fit. Researchers at Emory University, Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush, found that children who knew more of their family's stories tended to feel more in control of their lives. Bruce Feiler wrote about the work in ["The Stories That Bind Us"](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html). Your stories are part of that bigger story, and you're the only one who can tell them. ## 25 story prompts to get you started You don't need to remember everything. Pick one prompt and the details tend to come back once you start talking. ### Trouble and mischief - The worst thing you ever got caught doing - A time you blamed a sibling (and whether they ever found out) - The rule you broke most often - Something you did that your parents still don't know about ### Friends and enemies - Your best friend at their age, and what you did together - A fight with a friend and how it ended - The kid who scared you at school - Your favourite game in the playground ### Home and family - What your bedroom looked like - Dinner on a normal Tuesday - Your first pet, and its ridiculous name - What your parents did for work, as you understood it then - Holidays and how your family celebrated them ### Firsts and fears - The first time you rode a bike without help - Something you were terrified of - Your first day at a new school - The first money you ever earned and what you spent it on - A time you were really brave ### Things that have changed - How you watched TV, listened to music or played games - What you did on a rainy day - How you talked to friends after school - What things cost: sweets, a bus ticket, a comic - The toy everyone wanted one Christmas, birthday or holiday season - What you thought the future would look like - What you wanted to be when you grew up ## How to tell a story kids will actually listen to - **Start in the middle.** "I was nine, standing on the roof of the shed, and I realised I couldn't get down." Skip the background. They'll ask for it if they want it. - **Use their age as the hook.** "When I was exactly as old as you are now..." gets instant attention. - **Add one sensory detail.** The smell of your grandma's kitchen, the scratchy school jumper, the sound of the ice-cream van. One detail does more than a paragraph of description. - **Let yourself look silly.** Kids love stories where the parent was wrong, scared or embarrassed. It makes you human and it makes them laugh. - **Keep it short.** Two to five minutes. Stop while they still want more. - **Invite questions.** "What would you have done?" turns a story into a conversation. ## What that sounds like in practice Here's the difference. The summary version: "I had a hamster when I was eight. His name was Biscuit. He escaped once." The story version: "When I was eight, exactly as old as you, I had a hamster called Biscuit. One Saturday morning I opened his cage and he was gone. We searched the whole house. Grandma checked inside every shoe. Three days later, Grandpa opened the kitchen drawer to get a spoon, and there was Biscuit, asleep on the tea towels, fat as a dumpling. He'd been eating the cereal crumbs. What do you think he did for three whole days?" Same facts. One gets a nod; the other gets asked for again next week. You don't need to be a performer. You only need a start, a problem and an ending, plus one detail they can picture. ## Good moments to tell them - **Bedtime.** Swap the book for a true story once a week. "Tell me a 'when you were little' story" may become the most requested thing in your house. - **Car journeys.** Nobody can leave, and nobody has to make eye contact. Some of the best conversations happen at a red light. - **Walking past old places.** Your old school, the park where you broke your arm, your grandparents' street. - **When they're going through the same thing.** A first sleepover, a falling-out with a friend, a new school. "When that happened to me..." can help more than advice. ## When your childhood was hard Not everyone's childhood was happy, and you don't owe your children every chapter. Some stories can wait until they're older. Some may never need telling. That's yours to decide. What tends to work is honesty at the right size. A young child can hear, "Money was tight, so we didn't go on holidays, but my uncle took us fishing every summer." A teenager might be ready for more. Let their questions set the pace, and it's always fine to say, "That's a story for when you're older." When you do tell a hard part, give it a frame that ends in the present: what happened, what you understood later, and what you do now because of it. "I was scared of my father's anger when I was little. I learned later that he was scared too - about money, about things I didn't know. Now I try to tell you when I'm worried, so you don't have to guess." That's honest, it connects your past to their life, and it doesn't hand a child more than they can carry. And when a story isn't ready yet, "That's a story I'll tell you when you're a bit older" is a complete, honest answer, not a dodge. It tells them you have a past worth knowing, and that you'll trust them with it when the time is right. ## Bring in the other storytellers You're not the only one who remembers you as a kid. Your parents, siblings and childhood friends often hold the best stories, including ones you've forgotten or would prefer they had. Ask them to tell your kids directly, on a visit or a video call. Children also enjoy turning the tables. Help them prepare a few questions and interview you, or interview a grandparent about you. StoryCorps keeps a good list of [great questions](https://storycorps.org/participate/great-questions/) for family conversations that older kids can borrow from. ## Keep the stories, not just the telling Stories told out loud are wonderful, and they're fragile. Your kids will remember the cat-painting story. They probably won't remember the details in twenty years, and their own children won't hear it at all unless someone keeps it. Keeping it can be simple. After you tell a story, jot down three lines in a notebook or record a two-minute voice memo. Find an old photo that goes with it, even a blurry one of you in a terrible jumper, and keep them together. In Glow, you can scan your own childhood prints with your phone, add the story behind each one by text or voice, and keep it all in a private space your kids can explore. Siblings and grandparents can add their side of the same story, so your children get the full version, not only yours. ## Tonight's story Pick one prompt from the list above, the one that made you smile. Tell it at bedtime or at dinner tonight, starting with "When I was exactly your age..." Then write it down in three lines before you go to sleep. That's the first story in the collection. ## FAQ ### What childhood stories should I tell my kids? Start with the small and specific: your first pet, a time you got in trouble, your best friend, a favourite toy, something that scared you. Stories where you were the same age as your child right now land best, because they can picture themselves in your shoes. ### How do I tell my kids about a difficult childhood? You don't have to share everything at once. Tell true stories at a level that fits their age, and let their questions guide how far you go. It's fine to say, 'That's a story for when you're older.' ### How can I remember stories from my own childhood? Old photos, school reports and places are strong memory joggers. Ask your own parents, siblings or old friends what they remember about you; they often hold stories you've forgotten entirely. ### Should I write my childhood stories down? Yes, even briefly. A few sentences or a voice recording per story means your children can revisit them when they're older, and their own kids can hear them one day too. --- Source: https://tryglow.ai/blog/what-i-was-like-at-your-age-childhood-stories-to-tell-your-kids