Dear Jess,

UPDATE 6/6/2019: We discovered the album “Leo Does Children’s Metal Songs”, and it’s been on repeat at our house. FINALLY, a version of Baby Shark that doesn’t make me cringe! We also love dancing to the part of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” where Leo tells us to bang our head 🤘 I’ve added our favorite songs from the album to our Metal Songs for Kids Spotify playlist below!

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I don’t know about you, but with the continuous news coverage about the flu outbreak and a new baby, I’m pretty selective about when we venture into the world. The days when I feel like I’m about to go bonkers if Calvin asks me “Why?!” one more time, we start a dance party and usually both of our moods take a 180 degree turn.

Sure, Uptown Funk for the 100th time in a row is great and all, but I wanted to find some songs more attune to the music I listened to back when my husband and I met in high school. Eric and I knew we were going to hit it off when I asked him what System of a Down song I should feature on my Myspace (…setting up your song was a big deal okay?! Don’t judge). Fast forward, 13 years later and we’ve been to countless rock festivals and concerts together.  So the hunt to expose Calvin to a bit of our world in a non-scary, non-angry way was a fun challenge this week.

Dear Jess,

A few months ago when you came to me with this idea of starting Maternity Fraternity, I was a bit apprehensive. I had just given birth to my second son and finding the balance of being a mom to more than one kid while still recovering from my C-section, was already challenging. I didn’t answer your text until the next day because I was debating if I could handle taking on a project like this seriously. In the end, I realized that this project and my new year’s resolution of being better at getting out of “mommy-mode”, was a perfect fit.

I recently read an article about positive psychology that gave me some perspective on all those days where I felt like I was in a rut; when I felt like I didn’t want to “mom” anymore.

The human mind spends approximately 50 percent to 70 percent of its time in a mind wandering or daydreaming state.
-Eric Klinger, PhD, Daydream Researcher

I realized that I needed an outlet to express myself to another human being besides a toddler. I was spending too much time in my head– making to-do lists, meal planning, and wondering if I was making the right parenting decisions. It wasn’t a positive way to spend 50 to 70 percent of my time. I noticed that when I started to deliberately exist outside of my mommy role, I was able to live in the moment and be a more pleasant person to be around.

Here are some of the ways I got out of “mommy-mode” in the past few months: