Storytime Experiment
To combat some of the winter blues that have hit our household, I thought I’d try some new things on for size. The boys are easily bored from being stuck in the house every morning due to the cold temperatures that have finally come to Texas. An obvious first choice was story time at the local library. We have a public library right around the corner from our house so I figured, what the heck.
I talked to the boys about where we were going and what we were going to do. It went “OK” but not great. Forest did a good job of paying attention and mostly being involved in the songs and stories. Logan was “that kid.” You know the one that climbs under all the tables in the room, tries to touch the felt board, etc. He wasn’t disruptive per say because he was quiet, smiling slyly, and kept making eye contact with the librarian to make sure she saw what he was doing. But he was definitely the most rambunctious kid in the room. And the librarian who was running story time was a lot like me, a great person but not a natural at this kid stuff. She was obviously anxious about all the running around Logan was doing on top of some of the other kids lack of attention to the stories. She wasn’t a very good storyteller, bless her heart. She rushed through with only a limited amount of the kinds of emotions that would have gotten the kids attention. Again, I’m not critical of her because this toddler stuff is TOUGH. But as a parent looking to engage the kids in something for 30 minutes to break up our normal routine, I was disappointed. I was hoping for a more laid back environment where the person in charge just went with the flow of the kids energy (ignored it if necessary) instead of cutting it short when it made her too anxious.
I was proud of myself for mostly just letting the boys roam. I tried to let myself go and let them explore and have their own experience. All the other moms seemed cool with the kids doing their own thing so it was definitely the librarian’s anxiety that got to me.
It was a fun experiment. Probably would have been fine if we had had the chance to run off some steam before the story. Unfortunately that defeats the point of the outing for us. I think I’m going to try the Barnes and Noble story time next week. Maybe the train table will keep Logan occupied while Forest listens to the story. Of course the reality is that next week the roles may be switched and Forest may be the rambunctious one!
These are times when being a twin mom is more difficult then the mom of a single kid. I’m just proud of them for being good about going into and out of the library peacefully and holding my hands. They really are good boys.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
you are right, it is not easy especially when the other adult in the lead expresses their discomfort. we have curtailed our library story time as it coincides with the boys nap (who has it at 12, i ask?) but our public library is so good and the librarians are all like friends of the family. they are young and easy going so i look forward to our eventual return.
hope BandN is a bit more promising.