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.
The drawing game that turned my night around
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The other night, when I was fatigued and had a sore throat, my stepdaughter (10) said, “Hey. You’re not happy. Let’s play a game.” Ohhh that made my heart so happy that she noticed this and wanted to play to cheer me up with a game—our favorite way to connect! 🥹 AND, I didn’t know if I had much capacity to even talk… and most of our favorite games require a bit of that. My son (4) then said, “I know what we should play!” and he ran over with a piece of paper and pen. “The drawing a person game!” And so we did. Without letting each other see what we were drawing, we took turns drawing a little bit of a person, starting from the head, then folding the paper back to only show a little bit of what we’d done so the next person can add on a bit. Here’s what it looked like when we unfolded it… A HUGE laugh burst out of me that I didn’t even know I was capable of with how crummy I’d been feeling. Then my son shouted, “It looks like Pinocchio’s sister!!!” which made me laugh even harder! 🤣 I needed that laugh SO badly. It brought me back to life a little. And I had my kids to thank, completely. My invitation for you this week:
Cheering you on always, P.S. Reminder: I'm so excited to speak at StepmomCon 2026 -- a FREE virtual conference that supports stepmoms. I'm speaking on the importance of playfulness, but there are LOTS of other experts that I'm looking forward to learning from, too. If you are a stepmom and want to tune in, or if you know a stepmom and want to share with them, TAP HERE to be reminded and tune in when the conference goes live April 22nd! MORE FROM PLAYFUL HEART PARENTING: Family improv games for connection! A digital library with demonstration videos plus printable guide of fun improv games to bring you closer together through laughter and creativity. Simple, creative apps + printable card decks with 1400+ prompts that take the brainwork out and put connection and laughter in! Audio course + included private community: Core playful strategies for navigating tasks, routines, and everyday parenting challenges. |
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.
I was EXTREMELY grumpy last Friday night… The kids wanted to paint and there’s just something about paint with little kiddos that gets to me if I'm not in the right headspace to manage it. On top of that, 1.5yo little gal kept getting hurt… first her finger got smashed in the door while I was going in and out getting supplies… THEN she somehow busted open the little ice pack for her finger while I was trying to get her dinner and I freaked out that she was going to eat the gel inside and be...
Did Easter sneak up on me? YES. Did I scramble to put this together last night? Also yes! But I’m so excited to print, cut, and pop these prompts into the plastic eggs for some extra fun this weekend. I also really like the idea of not make everything about the candy and little “stuff” that inevitably gets trashed or clutters the house even more. So, if you’re like me and this is sneaking up on your last-minute, here you go!! Silly prompts and mini-games to hide in the eggs (or just play even...
This past weekend was full of a lot of big emotions for one of our kiddos and it was a bit of a roller coaster for us all. We’ve been looking for as many moments as possible to lean into playfulness—and it’s been so helpful!We went out for tacos last night and as we started to eat, I said, “Do you guys wanna play a game?” I was surprised when my stepdaughter said, “Oh, I made up my own fun game today!” She then taught us her new original game, which I’ll now teach to YOU! (She was very...