Motherhood is A LOT of work but its also super rewarding and extremely fun when you figure out great ways to entertain and bond with your children. I became a mom at 20 years old while in my sophomore year in college. The pregnancy was unplanned and I was extremely unprepared and overwhelmed with not a clue what to do. All I knew was the type of mother I wanted to be; a super involved, supportive super mom who spent a lot of time with her child, made them healthy meals, and read them bedtime stories every night. I could go on and on about the list of things I wanted to do and how I planned on being the perfect mom. But the realities of motherhood set in and put so many things in perspective. I realized that motherhood wasn't about being the "perfect" mom; in fact perfection in motherhood was...well pretty much impossible.
Now don't get me wrong I still strive for all of those things but the ultimate goal is to have a happy, healthy, loved child. So my goals became centered around doing everything in my power to achieve that. I'll admit when my son was younger I struggled with finding ways to bond with him and keep him entertained. He was a boy...what did little boys like to do? He had A LOT of energy and I barely had any. He was always into something, wouldn't sit still and when he began to talk well...he...hasn't stopped yet. But over time I started to find nice little mommy hacks to help me have fun with my son and build a strong bond with him. I really pay attention to the things he likes. He loves dinosaurs...so i researched dinosaurs. He became obsessed with Transformers so I watched all the movies and cartoon shows about Transformers with him. He got into Pokemon and I started learning about all the different types of Pokemon so we could talk about them and battle with his cards.
It became clear to me that in order to be the best mother I could be to him I had to find ways for me to bond with him on his level...live in his world and not to try and make him live in mine all the time. I realized that every now and then I had to be a kid, play in his imaginary worlds and talk his language...I had to see the world through his eyes.
Now I am constantly looking for mommy hacks to create fun, memorable and inexpensive ways to hang out with my little man. This weekend I went to Michael's and purchased some washable paint goo, white t-shirts and paint guns. My son, fiance and I had a BLAST running around outside squirting each other with our different paint colors. It was messy but it was AWESOME. I would recommend all my mommies with children 4 and over to try this mommy hack. And a nice piece of advice; make sure to get some bandannas to cover your faces and hats to cover your head/hair because as I mentioned it gets messy (and children don't always play by the rules lol). Grab your paint guns and paint and have at it mommies; you'll be happy you did and your children will be too!
Visit your local Michael's to get your paint war day materials at great prices. www.michaels.com
