From Story Hour to Mommy Hour 6
I have a flickr page. I use it to share photos with friends and family, and while it is public (YOU try explaining how a user name and password works to my grandmother), I don’t want to make it any “more” public by sharing it here. I’m sure you all are nice and dandy readers, but who knows–YOU could be “that guy” who found my blog by searching for “porn with women pushing in stirrups.”
And I DON’T WANT THAT GUY (or gal, don’t want to make sexist assumptions about my creepy readers) SEEING MY FLICKR PICTURES!
Anyway.
I fear that I may have recently misrepresented myself on that flickr page.
No, I haven’t posted a cleverly staged picture of me with my life-size cardboard cut-out of Edward Cullen with the caption that I have left my husband for Robert Pattinson, who claims that he just couldn’t resist my overwhelming animal magnetism.
But I have posted a few photos of the kids playing some admittedly adorable and creative games that came straight out of this here mama’s brain.
You know. Games where I hide a bowl filled with “jewels” in the playroom and then create a treasure map for the kids and then the kids go on a “treasure hunt” all while wearing pirate hats. Or games where I tuck little dragons, unicorns, and fairies away in the garden, and then the kids go searching for them all while dressed up as knights.
(Yeah, I suppose those games are pretty cool.)
In any case, after seeing pictures of the kids playing these games, some of my friends are now under the impression that I am some sort of uber-creative supermom.
And here’s where I need to correct their impression of me: I’m not an uber-creative supermom.
(The term “supermom” conjures up all sorts of ridiculous perfectionist images of motherhood, and for the sake of my mental health, I give a mean and nasty “stink-eye” to any and all perfectionist images of motherhood.)
But I have found some uber-creative ways to entertain my kids. And I do this in part so that they are entertained “enough” for me to get some “mommy time” each day.
(“Mommy time” is like happy hour, except the coffee and quiet of the kitchen replace the tequila and noise of the bar.)
How do I do it?
Two words: story. hour.
Just like our local library’s story hour, I hold a “story hour” in our home for my audience of two a few times each week.
I pick a theme. (Pirates, knights and dragons, grandparents, and babies have been some of our more recent themes.)
I choose four books that relate to that theme.
A snow-themed story hour
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I find a song on YouTube that relates to our theme.
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I come up with a craft that relates to the theme.
For the forest-animal theme, we crafted homes for the kids' "animal" collection.
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I create a small game or activity that relates to our theme.
ARRRGH! THAR be the treasure!
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And I find a movie that relates to (you guessed it) the theme.
And these story hours are, quite frankly, magical.
The kids learn. They play. They squeal. They listen. All three of us have a blast! And by the time we get to the movie (which is always, always our story hour finale), the kids are so freakin’ entertained and educated and lavished with attention that Mommy ends up getting a good (uninterrupted) hour or two to work, clean, make phone calls, or even just snuggle up on the couch and enjoy a movie with her two little boys.
And that doesn’t make me an uber-creative supermom.
It just makes me a book-loving, game-loving, sorta-selfish, sorta-creative mom who a) loves spending time with her kids but also b) loves and needs some time to herself every once in a while.
And our story hours (and all of the uber-creativity that they encompass) let me do both.
