Not all reading happens individually. Sometimes, people read to you. Sometimes, that person is your parent when you’re a young child getting ready to go to bed. The reading of bedtime stories is a time-honored tradition that children have shared with their parents for generations.

According to Pew Research, more than half (58%) of parents with a child under the age of six read to that child every day. 84% of parents with children that young read to their kid at least once a week. Those numbers stay high even as children get as old as 12 years old.

This dedication to reading to children not only demonstrates the importance of reading. It also shows reading’s power to build a relationship. Reading a bedtime story is an easy habit for parents to instill in their kids early. It instills wonder, encourages imagination, and sometimes get those little rascals to fall asleep faster.

Reading to a child early and often helps them developmentally. These kids often do better in school and are more likely to read later in life. It gives them all of the benefits of reading we talked about earlier—only more so because their brains are still developing. “All of us remember the favorite books of our childhood,” says Michael Dirda. “That’s when stories affect us most.”