Whether it’s ‘roaring’ like a bear, acting out sword battles with pirates, to performing an alien impression, night after night parents transform into their inner thespian to become the ultimate storyteller. However, despite delivering performances that will last a lifetime in children’s minds, a new survey has revealed the underlying anxieties and bedtime stage fright many parents face before and during each nightly performance.
The survey of 1,000 parents, commissioned by Aldi’s award-winning baby and toddler brand Mamia, has found two thirds of parents confess to feeling embarrassed, or lacking in confidence when reading to their children. Indeed, almost one in four (23 per cent) say they were jealous of other parents who don’t get embarrassed, while over a third (38 per cent) skip parts of the story or rushed through sections just to get to the end.
The underlying reasons for feeling embarrassed stems from tiredness (35 per cent), challenges doing different voices (34 per cent) and not making a story dramatic enough (27 per cent). Frustrated parents up and down the country also pinpoint their reading ability as a barrier to reading to their kids, with 15 per cent saying their reading level is not great.
