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.
Stealing this idea from my friend Jen
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I have a new, wonderful friend named Jen. We met in person here in Nashville at our mutual friend Eli’s book tour stop (shout out @attachmentnerd and her awesome new book!!), and Jen and I had one of these moments: We bonded immediately over our love for improv, fart humor, being stepmoms, and just general jolly weirdness. A few days later, she texted me that she was having her weekly “inner child date” and was using my new “What Should We Doodle” app (part of the PHP app bundle). She then uploaded them to the app gallery and they were amazing: (Yes, she is an actual artist, but that’s not the point!) The point is, she specifically sets aside time each week to intentionally do something with “Little Jen.” Not for the sake of productivity, but for the sake of slowing down and connecting with her inner child. As Jen puts it: “It’s about anchoring yourself into the physical realm and finding joy in the small things just like kids do.” It’s not always doodling, sometimes it’s looking at a Where’s Waldo book or making a kaleidoscope! My invitation for you this week: Have an inner child date with yourself - even if it’s super-quick or while you’re with your own kids. Maybe it replaces five minutes of scrolling! If you are like me and you do well with assignments, here’s a quick doodle you can do for fun: “A shy rhino getting splashed by a whale that just jumped out of the sea” (Please send me your doodle if you do this!) Cheering you on always, Mia 💞 MORE FROM PLAYFUL HEART PARENTING: The best improv games for family connection! Prompt-based games and easy, silly moment ideas (1500+ prompts and counting!) 11 core strategies for using play as a tool for more ease and joy in parenting. |
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.
Yesterday our dear friends were over and just before it was time for them to go home, the witching hour had started. My son’s best friend was running around, sticking out his tongue and blowing wet raspberries at everyone, spit included. actual footage We told him to stop. We told him “spit stays in your mouth.” But it was the end of a long day, and he literally was not hearing us… you know when kids are dysregulated and just on another level? It was that. To make matters worse, my son picked...
(Hey, that subject line rhymes!) We just got back from our first big family adventure visiting family across the country, and as usual I was in hustle-and-bustle mode, drenched in sweat from packing… already running late as usual for our fam… (Side note, I used garbage bags and then sat on them to press out all the air and semi-vacuum-seal our clothes and I felt like a GENIUS… I am going to pretend I discovered this so don’t correct me if I’m wrong, let me have this 🏆) When we got to security...
I recently got punched in the EYEBALL with the corner of a Rubik’s cube. It all started when I felt like I was CRUSHING it at being a mom, doing all of the following at once: Reading to my toddler on the couch (aka she was sitting on top of my chest and flipping the pages before I could read any of the words) Playing the “Jingle Game” with my 10yo stepdaughter, perched on the top of the couch - this is where we give each other random items and then make up a jingle together for them on the...