I’m a mom, stepmom, and theatre educator helping exhausted parents access their inner creative playfulness for more connection and joy. No messy crafts, complicated setups, or sensory bins here! Just simple, silly moments that bring your family back together through laughter. My short weekly emails share reflections from real life and a simple invitation you can try for yourself or with your kids.
Moms… can I get real with you for a sec?
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I’ve seen this study going around on social media that kind of bothers me: It says mothers get more oxytocin from cuddling their kids and dads get more oxytocin from playing with their kids. The study itself doesn’t bother me. It’s the hundreds of comments saying: “I hate playing with my kids. My husband's the fun one, I’m the nurturing one. Good to know it’s just science.” And my most viral reel? My husband. The world loves a fun dad. Here’s what the stigma seems to be: Dads = fun, silly, playful Moms = nurturing, carrying the mental load, nagging, all the NOT-fun stuff. That’s some B.S. — sorry, I said it! Moms, I’m here to tell you: we get to be nurturing AND fun. “Fun” can be silly and simple. Doesn’t have to be rough-and-tumble. Example: My son and I used a “magic wand” to freeze and unfreeze each other today and he was squealing with laughter. It’s already been my favorite part of the day. What are your thoughts on this? Reply and let me know — I’d love to hear! Love, Mia P.S. Here’s a message from a mom yesterday that sparked this email: “I started using your free ideas for being silly and it has magically diffused so many almost-tense moments. It's made me feel so much more real, relaxed, and not stressed. I always hated that my husband was the "fun one,” but now I feel happy having even fifteen mins of silly time!” P.P.S. Have you saved that list yet? Here it is: 25 Easy Silly Moments updated.pdf P.P.P.S. I'm experimenting with sending short, weekly emails like this to keep in touch with you. I'll still be posting on Instagram, but shifting my focus to be more personal here. That algorithm is crazy and I never know if even 1% of followers will see my content -- so thank you in advance for sticking around! 🙏🏽 |
Playful Heart Parenting
I’m a mom, stepmom, and theatre educator helping exhausted parents access their inner creative playfulness for more connection and joy. No messy crafts, complicated setups, or sensory bins here! Just simple, silly moments that bring your family back together through laughter. My short weekly emails share reflections from real life and a simple invitation you can try for yourself or with your kids.
Did your teachers in school ever do the classic “If you can hear my voice, clap once…” thing? As a theatre educator, I did similar calls for students to pay attention but tried to mix things up to keep it more fun and less robotic… Like, “If you can hear my voice… put your finger on your nose stand on one foot Stick out your tongue Do the Macarena Say, “Well butter my biscuits!” Then my students would be like ☝️ Now at home with my son, I use the exact same strategy when it seems like he's...
First off, I think we can all agree there’s no better sound than a little kid belly laugh, right? Right. I sometimes forget just how easily and freely kids are ready to belly laugh, but the other day I got a reminder. I was sitting on the couch and my cranky 2-year-old (who’d skipped her nap) pushed against me. On a whim, I pretended she’d been strong enough to push me all the way off the couch and dramatically rolled onto the floor with a silly, “Whoaaaa!” She laughed SO hard. I climbed back...
My nervous system was shot the other day and I was really on edge and agitated. I felt stuck in “serious mode.” Part of me knew that if I could “activate play mode” even just a little bit, we could all feel a little better. But another part of me was like: “NO. I don’t WANT to lighten up right now. I deserve to feel this way!” It’s true, I did deserve to feel that way. AND yet there was also this tiny voice asking: What if you let go of clinging to serious mode… just for a minute? That...