The Digital Dad

When Olly Mann tires of the bedtime story, he finds an unexpected ally in AI

- Olly Mann

Look, it’s a wonderful thing to read your children bedtime stories. It fosters imagination, introduces the pleasures of reading, strengthens the bond between parent and child, yadda yadda yadda.

But… when’s the right time to stop? Before they sprout underarm hair, I’d wager. Certainly before they get to the Honeymoon Suite. But, when?

I was mulling this over recently, having realised that what used to be a relatively rapid event at the end of each day’s childcare (speed-read Tiddler, kiss goodnight, then hit the G&T) was fast eating into my evenings. Sometimes I wasn’t hitting the bottle until 8pm!

My son Harvey, now seven, has progressed beyond Donaldson and Blyton and likes a proper "chapter book", but isn’t ready for something that potentially might entertain us both, like Dickens or Kipling (we tried The Jungle Book, and he was literally kicking me in the face from boredom. Sometimes you’ve just got to pick your battles).

We’ve done all of Dahl, and he’s very anti-Harry Potter for some reason (I think he secretly finds witchcraft scary), so all that’s left is the dross from the dreaded "Ages fiveeight" section: adventure stories with neon jackets that are clearly designed for kids to read to themselves, but he’s not proficient enough for that, so I was reading them to him. And they’re really, really boring.