A shared story is the most binding element in any relationship between two people. Friends recount their past (or future) adventures. Family members tell ... sometimes over and over again ... the tales of those who have gone before them. More broadly, nations form stories of their origins and history that help to create a national identity and community; faith communities tell stories that try to explain the world around us, as well as the meaning of our lives. There's no end to the number of stories that comprise our lives.

Storytelling is most profound between adults and children, especially parents and their children. As children begin to explore the world, how the adults in their lives explain and frame the child's experience will have a lifelong impact. For example, what stories do you tell a child about the child's home: why does the child live there? who else lives there, or nearby? what connection does the child have to the wider community outside the home? How we tell this story, and hundreds of others like it every day, will become the threads of the child's new life, and will be part of her or his experience forever.

Dave's Story

www.TellMeAStoryMom.com & www.TellMeAStoryDad.com is fully operated by Dave LeLacheur. Dave writes many of the stories, operates the website, and speaks about himself in the third person when writing his bio. Dave began building story worlds in his teens, and successfully continued avoiding real life considerations right up to the end of his college career, capped by a senior thesis on Tolkein, heroism and faith.

Post-college reality then struck; a "real job" was considered, and eventually (after a number of not-so-real jobs) it was secured. The result was CareerLeader, LLP, of which Dave was a founding member and Mr. Do-It-All for the business for over a dozen years. It grew; it morphed; it was successful. Ideas of building worlds and telling stories emerged in the realm of personal career self-assessment, where Dave helped users read about their unique, professional narrative.

With CareerLeader on firm footing, Dave created Tell Me A Story Mom / Dad to provide a vehicle to write stories specially for children. Dave combines his love of myths, old and new, with a practiced voice that comes from telling countless stories, many of which are now available here. The idea of allowing the reader to request key story elements was inspired by his practice of listening to and incorporating on the fly his children's ideas into their bedtime stories.