Reading your child a bedtime story—or making one up yourself—has so many benefits, but there's one that is often overlooked: Bedtime stories create powerful narratives in your child that you choose. (For more on narratives and why they’re crucial for parents to know about, see this post.)

Children’s stories affect kids on an emotional level. For instance, let’s take the common absent-parent-returns-home story. This story is always some version of (1) a parent leaves; (2) the child feels alone, scared, sad, worried, etc.; (3) the parent returns; and (4) all is good again.

That’s it. That’s the story. Yet the story is powerfully appealing to children because all kids naturally fear being separated from their parents, especially at bedtime.

When the story is read again and again—which is often the case with bedtime........

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