there are two recommended ways of telling children stories ...

there are two recommended ways of telling children stories, but there are also a multitude of false paths in between.
the first is the way unconsciously adopted by the nanny, and whoever can be included in that category. here a whole fantasy world dawns for the child, and the nannies are themselves deeply convinced that the stories are true...which, however fantastic the content, can’t help bestowing a beneficial calm on the child. only when the child gets a hint of the fact that the person doesn’t believe her own stories are there ill-effects – not from the content but because of the narrator’s insincerity – from the lack of confidence and suspicion that gradually envelops the child.
the second way is possible only for someone who with full transparency reproduces the life of childhood, knows what it demands, what is good for it, and from his higher standpoint offers the children a spiritual sustenance that is good for them – who knows how to be a child, whereas nannies themselves are basically children.
.
kierkegaard, aged 23, in a journal entry from 1837
as appeared in the tls (times literary supplement) july 8, 2005