The question often arrives while you are doing something else. What were you like when you were little? Did you have a bike? Were you ever in trouble?
You do not need a big family story ready. A small one is easier to tell without finding yourself halfway into a lesson, or into something you would rather not finish in front of a six year old.
Pick one thing that actually happened when you were roughly their age, and tell it in about a minute.
What counts
Ordinary memories work well here. The walk to school and what you passed on the way. A dog two doors down. Something you were frightened of that turned out to be nothing much. A thing you got wrong and had to admit to.
The memory can wander a little. Include the boring details anyway: what the kitchen floor looked like, or what you had in your pockets.
If nothing comes to mind, start from an object rather than an event. A bag, a pair of shoes, a bus, a television with four channels on it.
Keep it short
Set aside five to fifteen minutes to try this with your 2 to 8 year old. The story itself can be much shorter, especially with a younger child. There is nothing to prepare and nothing to get out.
A minute-long story is enough. Stop when the memory is told, even if you could add more.
Tell Me a Family Story
At a quiet moment, one adult tells a real memory from their own childhood - a simple story the child hasn't heard. Child asks questions or requests a favourite to be told again.
Shaped to your child and the moment you are both in.
Leave some quiet afterwards
When you reach the end, stop talking for a moment.
Maybe they will ask something. Maybe they will want the same story again tomorrow, or tell you a version of their own that is mostly invented. They may say nothing and go back to what they were doing.
There is nothing you need them to say. Leave the quiet there and let them decide what to do with it.
What to leave out
Choose a memory you can tell comfortably. Leave out grief, fear, anything that still has an edge for you, or anything that would leave you managing their reaction. Those stories are not off limits for ever. They are simply bigger than this activity needs.
Leave the lesson off too. If you hear yourself reaching for “and that is why you should always”, finish the story one sentence earlier.
If it sticks
It might become something you do at the same point each day. You might do it twice and never again.
Either is fine. It needs no equipment, no planning and no particular mood. Just one small thing that happened to you when you were about their age.