Why do children enjoy listening to their father's tell stories?

Yes. It is identification with their dads. It is a memory they will always retain into their fatherhood and grandfatherhood. It means their father was a good enough father to take that time and just be with them.. not spend every night wrapped up in life’s retardedry.

I often found that my dads voice was easier to listen to than my mums AND because of his military background and all of his travels he had so much life experience which made for some amazing stories (like the one where he and a whole bunch of sailers smuggled a stray puppy from Hong Kong onto the ship, that made me think very highly of my dad indeed).

My dad also made more time to tell my brother and I stories. He still does and I’m 23 years old.

1. Storytelling is interesting, especially when you make it interesting with your tone, details, description. Certain people have a natural talent for storytelling. You may be one of them.
2. People who love each other are generally more receptive to each other’s stories. It is obvious that your story is more interesting to your own children than it would be to someone else’s.
3. Children, and especially boys, need a role model. They are looking for a reason to be proud of you. I was proud of my useless, gambling and amorous uncle, just because he once stole a horse from the Nazis and made them run after him. So a story that might not seem such a big deal to you or other adults (like the time you ate a whole pizza all by yourself), would make your son go “wow!”.
4. Especially at younger ages, the sound of the father’s voice, regardless of content, is soothing and has been proven to help babies relax and even sleep. I used to talk or sing to my daughter from the day she was born.

Storytelling is an art as old as man.

Children are sponges, and soaking up all you are telling them. They like hearing about times before them. They like hearing their parents tell stories – it can be either or, but this is one of those gender role things where the father is more powerful and quixotic. And yes, the child is the center of attention during story-telling. What’s not to like about that? You’re intereacting directly with them.

Children tend to get this idea of “my dad is all-knowing”...

@Leanne1986 Ahh Hong Kong. Beautiful city at night. Hear hear to a fellow sailor.

@bluu my dad IS all knowing!

It’s really about identifying with their dad, the curiosity on knowing what he used to do when he was younger. That stills happens with me, when I hear my parents talking about their childhood. =D

I wish my kids were interested in my personal stories from the past. They prefer made up stories. I guess my imaginary life is much more exciting than my real life. Sigh.

Children sometimes have a hard time viewing an adult out of their current role. You know, the amazement at seeing a teacher at the grocery store. To them, you’re just boring ol’ wonderful dad. It can be fascinating to hear about when you climbed trees or went off on adventures or got in trouble with grandpa.
It can help them see you as a full person who has and had a life outside of your dad role. These stories can also be helpful when they’re teenagers. They might be less inclined to think “dad would never understand…” if you’ve already entertained them with tales of your own youthful mistakes and life lessons.

I loved and still love listening to family members tell stories about their past and even of me when I was little and what they felt. @Likeradar summed it up well I think. It makes dad, mom, grandma seem like real people who actually do things outside of being your parent; or they they once were children themselves.

When my grandma passed away a couple of years ago I grabbed a bunch of old photographs from her apartment. I am generally not a craft person, but I LOVED looking at the photos, so I actually put together an album. Within the album I wrote out either stories my grandma or parents told me about the photos or my own thoughts and feelings when I see a particular picture. It covers my families history back to my grandparents early adulthood. Their travels on the Queen Elizabeth to Europe, The streets of The Bronx with my mom and aunt playing on the sidewalk, funny picture of my aunt and her girlfriends at camp in upstate NY, my grandpa smiling and holding my mom when she was a baby, my sister and I when I was little and how my mom used to pose us in front of flowers and I didn’t realize until I saw those photos again that my mom dressed us in colors that coordinated with the flowers. I could go on an on. My one regret is that I did not make this album while my grandmother was still alive.

Mostly, I think as a child, I liked the stories because it wasn’t a lesson or something that was supposed to make me feel guilty or ungrateful, they were stories of joyful times my family had. They smiled and laughed when they thought of the memories, really wonderful.

My dad died when I was 10 and he was a great story teller. I used to beg my mom to tell me stories about her childhood. Now that she is in her 80’s I am getting a few out of her. I love listening to old people tell stories. I am so afraid history will be lost if it is not passed on to someone. That would be a shame.

My dad never really told stories. He’s a very quiet man. I didn’t even know he was in the military until my mom mentioned it when I was 15 or so. My grandma told great stories, though. And maybe since I’m female, I related to her stories of the olden days.

I don’t know about fathers specifically, but it’s a great way for a child and a parent to connect. A child can connect to someone else’s childhood. I remember both of my parents told interesting stories of their childhood and I was always interested in them; I remember loving to hear about the differences between the ‘60s-‘70s and now. It’s a good thing to tell people about previous times; I think it allows for an appreciation of the past instead of just remaining ignorant about it. I certainly plan on telling my kids stories like that.

I think men tend to be better story-tellers because they sit around the campfire (or some substitute) late at night BS.
I also have a theory that women tend to be smarter than men, because as teens we spent our time studying instead of practicing making armpit noises. (Also, men tend to be better at armpit noises.)

@kruger_d I spent my time as a teenager not studying, but obsessing and practicing my signature with the last name of one of those armpit noise boys. :)

i guess it’s because it’s cool to see your dad as someone other than just ‘your dad’. and besides, if he could do all that stuff, who knows what you could do!
i don’t know, i love listening to stories about things before i was born, from anyone. it’s awesome to hear how things were. besides, things always sound better in hindsight!

this reminds me of that movie Big Fish!

Women tell stories to children all the time. Ever see one of those story telling dolls from native American cultures? You might be able to argue that women tell different kinds of stories compared to men, but I think it would be very difficult to argue that men are better story tellers than women. Men may sit around campfires, but girls do sleepovers.

Women do graduate from college at higher rates and in higher numbers when compared to men. Perhaps this means they are smarter, or at least, tend to know more, on average.

@daloon I have been thinking about the fact that girls now graduate from college more than boys now, and I wondering how that breaks down by socio-economic groups? Has there been a drastic change in recent years on one specific group? I don’t think it is that girls are smarter.

I have never thought of who tells more or better stories according to gender. I thnk some of it is family customs, and I have to say I find differences in different parts of the country. The midwest seems to be big story tellers from my experience, not only to children, but among adults as well. But of course stories are told everywhere.

You have to wonder if TV, Movies, Electronic Media (in general), and long hours at the office have hurt “family” – time: We are letting someone else fill the role of ‘story-teller’. I heard most of the stories from my dad when we sat at the dinner table. Now, families are sitting around the TV with card tables in front of them…no interaction.

@JLeslie My theory is that our culture is swinging against boys and in favor of girls. These are generalizations, but girls tend to be able to sit still longer and focus longer and be compliant with adult supervision. They are willing to be told things and to believe them.

Boys, on the other hand, tend to need to be active and run around and learn through experimentation instead of listening.

So who do teachers like? Well, if you have a classroom of thirty screaming kids, only it’s mostly the boys doing the screaming, who do you like?

And let’s not get started about ADD. These days, the male nature has become a pathology. We have to drug boys so they will act like girls.

So, it’s not any surprise to me that women are succeeding much more at education than guys do. The world has changed. Women, in the not too distant future, will take the positions that men are in now. Men will be the ones complaining about discrimination, not women. The pendulum has already swung too far, but most women (and most men) don’t even know it, yet.

Something to keep your eye on, I’d say.

@daloon My friends who have sons feel exactly the same as you descirbe, and I have to say I agree. The expectation for young boys is unrealistic in schools these days, I was not even thinking about that related to college. So, do you think boys feel like s**t in school? Like they can’t do things right, in trouble more, and that maybe affects their atitude towards school? I mean a HS young man doesn’t have to run off energy like a 5 year old, but maybe they are already negative by that point?

My theory is that there is a link between the way boys are treated in elementary school and the fact that women form an ever-increasing majority of college students. I’m not sure how to test the theory. It could function in a variety of ways, and not doing things right, being in trouble more, and other things may affect their attitude towards school, which in turn may affect their performance.

I think that the things that society values could be a part of it. We are changing from an industrial society to a “white collar” society. Brains are becoming more important, whereas, in the past, brawn was pretty important. Work, in general, is changing so that it requires greater mental concentration and more cooperation and people skills.

It’s a combination of things. My son is not good at reading and writing. Well, he says he doesn’t like it. He feels like he is behind others in class, and as a result, since he seems to like to be best at things, he doesn’t try so much with reading and writing.

He is a visual thinker and learner, anyway. He loves TV. He is learning about science and drawing from TV (TMNT, no less, teaches about black holes and dark matter). I caught him watching a science show about past die-offs in the history of the earth.

He loves physical activities, and is very coordinated. He could be a good gymnast, but her prefers martial arts. He likes doing tricks on bicycles and admires skate boarders. He is also a great drawer. He’s teaching himself. He’s way better than I could ever be and he’s only nine.

He’s definitely visual and kinetic in learning style. Yet school is about sitting still and listening and writing. To write, you have to organize your thoughts in order to tell a story. He’s not good at organizing his thoughts. He bounces all over the place. Puts things in reverse order. He sees connections and his mind moves too quickly for him to write it down. He forgets what he was thinking about the middle of the sentence, because he’s already three more thoughts down the line. (OK, so I’m imagining this one, because that’s how I was until I learned to type.)

I was the second to last person in my first grade (second?) to learn to read. I was very slow, and yet I eventually caught up. People learn at different rates, and yet school is not designed to accommodate this—even progressive schools, like the one he’s in, have their limits.

But it isn’t just my boy. I found out yesterday that half the boys in school have tutors for after school. Half!!! What is going on here? How can boys be that much stupider than girls, that half of them need extra tutoring just to keep up? Is it their brains? Or could it be the system?

@daloon I was only average at reading in school, which was a dissappointment to the school I guess since my math was so excellerated. I hated reading, especially having to read stuff I didn’t give a damn about. So, in turn I sucked at history and other subjects that required a lot of reading. I am very much an auditory and visual learner. I began to do much better in Reading and English class in the later of high school years, and then through college. I still hate reading something I a not interested in, I have trouble comprehending it, because I read rather slowly and get bored…too much work. Also, like your son, I like to be good at what I do, so am frustrated and tend to be apathetic towards something I don’t do well.

I like the Montessori idea of encouraging children to focus on subjects they are naturally interested in.

That is riduculous that half the boys need tutors. Something is wrong there. I think the emphasis on the very early years in school is overboard. My dad learned to read in 3rd grade and he has a PhD from Wharton, and his business in his retirement is buying and selling books, he loves books and reading.

The point you make about fewer blue collar jobs, what does that have to do with men going to college? The point there is that previously men could find jobs without a college degree and now they need one more, yet they are not the ones getting the college degrees. There is a disconnect there. I wonder if the number of college degrees have greatly increased overall, and the male rate is actually a constant based on percentage to the total population, and females have simply increased? I don’t know how they really work/manipulate those stats.

@JLeslie Good questions about the stats. You could research it if you wanted! ;-) Interesting that you don’t enjoy reading so much and yet you are such a prolific writer.

@daloon Thank you. Writing is about what is in your head. So for your son, since it seems he has great ideas swirling around in there, he will probably write well once his hands can work as fast as his mind. Reading does help reinforce grammatic rules, punctuation, writing styles, vocabulary, but if you have ideas you can write.