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.
My inner child is celebrating this
|
When my sister and I were kids, we made up a ridiculous game where we’d give each other random prompts for facial expressions or poses. Our favorite way to play was cramming all our friends into the tiny half-bathroom (the only room without windows), turning off the lights, and waiting in the dark. 😂 One person would give a prompt, count to three, and everyone froze in their best interpretation. It was always something funny (and usually gross), like: “You just looked in the mirror and saw a pimple the size of a basketball on the tip of your nose!” Then the lights came on, the prompt-giver picked their favorite, and that person got to give the next prompt and control the lights. I have so many memories of all of us laughing hysterically from this game. We never gave it a real name (probably just “The Bathroom Game”), but a few weeks ago at 1am, the idea hit me to turn it into an app. I quickly jotted down “Make This Face!” in my notes app, but couldn’t sleep because more and more prompts kept coming. I was so excited to pull it all together. And now it’s here, ready for families everywhere to play!! Plus, I’ve added another brand-new app called Act Out That Sound (full of silly sound effects for families to lip-sync and act out, including a bunch my family recorded, haha!). You can grab them individually or as part of the App Bundle (which makes each app come out to around $4). (Psst… if you already got the bundle before these were added, you should have gotten an email from me on Sunday with the option to add these two new ones!) Here’s what I think is happening inside me when I make these apps (and every time I see someone download them)… My inner little-Mia feels seen for her love of weird, creative humor. 🥹 Through all the seasons of life when I felt like I needed to hide my goofy side and be “cool,” I now get to return to that little Mia who just loves to PLAY. The kind of play with no winner or loser, no real point, other than being creative and laughing together. That’s always been my favorite way to connect! And now families all over the world are acting out these silly prompts with their kids. That feels so special. My invitation for you this week: 1. Take a second to remember something quirky about you as a child. A weird game? An imaginary friend? Something uniquely you? 2. Whether or not a memory comes to mind, just pause to imagine little-you for a moment, and remember that part of you is still inside you and worthy. And if a funny memory did come to you, I’d love to hear it! Cheering you on always, P.S. I recently added print-your-own card decks to the apps (all except the sound effects one, because you can’t exactly print sound effects… yet!). Now there’s a screen-free option too! Big thanks to those who suggested this. MORE FROM PLAYFUL HEART PARENTING: Done-for-you fun. Simple, creative apps that take the brainwork out and put connection and laughter in. LITTLE MOMENTS FOR BIG LAUGHS: Quick and easy, random, silly moments to share with your kids. Playful strategies for navigating everyday parenting challenges and reducing power struggles. |
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.
My husband stumbled on the video of the first time my stepdaughter met my son, shortly after he was born. "Awww," I said as I watched her nervously skip into the room with a shy, excited grin and climb into the bed where I was holding her sleeping baby bro. But then something happened in the video that made my jaw drop. Something small but not actually small at all. Something I had no memory of... There was a little bar code sticker that had somehow gotten stuck to my arm from something. My...
I knew Saturday was also my only day to get some work done, uninterrupted, but I also knew that we needed at least a few minutes together as a family to just be together and laugh. My son, as always, had wild energy (it seems to be getting more and more wild as he approaches age 4… who can relate??) ...and I was proud of him for asking, “Can we play ‘Who can sound like?’” where I give him weird, silly prompts to channel his loudness. I shifted from that game to “You are…” so I could give him...
Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in four years. I went into the studio to record harmonies on an album. This was for a producer I used to work with a lot… …until I gave birth to my son. Last time I was in there I was super pregnant. It was like time traveling, because it had felt like such a long time and also not a long time at all. This was a big deal for me because it was like getting a big part of myself back that I had been missing! 🥺 Singing harmonies is good for my soul and...