If you have one toddler and an afternoon in which you need to entertain him between naptime and bedtime, here’s what you need to do:
1- Place toddler in carseat or stroller. Add Cheerios.
2- Go to large bookstore with extensive children’s area.
3- Pull a copy of Naptime Is the New Happy Hour: And Other Ways Toddlers Turn Your Life Upside Down
4- Remove 37 board books from shelf and hand to toddler.
5- Sit on stool reading Naptime while toddler throws and slurps on board books.
I think the author, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, would agree with my recommendation. She and I clearly think a lot alike. She reminds us that entertaining your toddler does not have to include going to the Zoo or Children’s Museum every day. The Sprint store will do just fine for an outing with lots to see and touch.
This is a super fun, light read, and a great gift for someone who has just finished her rookie year of motherhood. Once you’ve graduated from just keeping the baby alive, and it’s time to worry about things like socializing your little caveman and purchasing a toddler bed, this book will be a great companion.
Wilder-Taylor is a funny chick who keeps it real. Read her blog and see if it’s your style.
I don’t know if I’ve been exceptionally lucky or if I just don’t have such a strong internal “am I a freak?” paranoia, but I am noticing a common theme in a lot of Mom-targeted essays and literature in which the narrator thinks all the other moms are too extreme, too obsessed with mothering, too competitive. Our heroine, in this book too, feels like she can’t penetrate this world that everyone else seems more at ease with. Wilder-Taylor describes a scene in which she is peer pressured into a Pampered Chef party and feels alienated from her neighborhood moms. Does everyone feel this way? Am I one of the psycho moms who makes others feel misfit-ish? Regardless, I think I am a cool, approachable mom, and I would be her friend, if she lived in Berkeley, and I hope that she would be mine.
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This isn’t directly related to this post, but when DO you start worrying about socializing a baby?! Mine is about 6 months now and I’ve been wondering if I need to start bringing her to a playgroup, swimming lessons, SOMEPLACE with other little people her age.
I would like to join you at a bookstore and we can let the kids crawl on the floor while we read books that build our self esteem as parents. And then we can get some hot chocolate with whipped cream just for the grown ups.
Amy, I don’t know your situation, but I think as long as you’re socializing with people who make you happy, that’s good enough for a while. But I’m surprised if you haven’t found that “it takes a village” worth of other moms of young babies to talk to and relate with. If the thought of a mom’s group or playgroup interests you, then give it a go. For YOU.
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