One of the most popular after-school clubs for girls is the
Drama Club. There must be a litle bit of the actress in all
of us.
Even after grammar school is over, in summer camp, high
school and seminary, there are many creative outlets for our
acting abilities, be it the school play or the clever little
skits that are put on in connection with Shabbos and the
various festivals.
Play acting can transport us from our everyday lives into
situations and places we have never even been. But then comes
"real life" with a job, housework, cooking and diaper
changes.
For years, while my children were young, I kept a cartoon
inside the lid of my sewing box. It was something a friend
had cut out for me from a secular magazine.
It showed a frazzled woman with big bags under her eyes,
holding an infant, with a toddler pulling on her skirt and
two older preschoolers running rings around all of them. The
woman was stirring a pot while an adjacent pot was boiling
over, smoke rising from the oven and the phone ringing itself
off the hook right behind her.
Next to her, sitting calmly at the kitchen table, was a man
with his feet up and a can of beer in hand, saying, "I don't
know, Helen. You used to be such a fun person."
Every time I dropped everything and raced over to my sewing
box at 6:30 a.m. to sew on a button for a son to have a shirt
that was buttoned ALL the way up, to look presentable in
school that day, I would look at the cartoon, relate to good
old Helen, and get a good laugh to start my day.
Humor and dramatic distractions of all sorts can have an
uplifting effect on those of us whose lives are somewhat
routine. I say SOMEWHAT, because one day may differ from the
next by virtue of that afternoon being spent at the emergency
room with a four-year-old who fell off the swing, while the
next morning is devoted to collecting a first grader from the
school nurse who has just informed you that those little
pimples have erupted into chicken pox.
Yet another `routine' day has a little interlude while the
plumber dismantles the toilet to disengage the dolly who
accidently fell in at precisely the full flush cycle. And so
on...
But there are days, and lots of them, when we get up, change
the diapers, dress everyone, send the older ones off to
school, make the beds and attend to perhaps a hundred very
rote activities. These are days we have to `spice up.'
I know that using a cordless or cellphone is one way to get
through those days. My friends make and receive a dozen long
calls and talk their way through dishes, ironing and sandbox
time. They take the `cell' to the supermarket and make calls
en route to picking up the children.
However, children need more than mere presence; they need
interaction with a parent. Mommy's attention being fixed on
the phone is not always in their best interest. So let us
consider other methods for Mommy to enliven her day within
the family routine. I particularly enjoy utilizing spare
moments to read stories aloud to my
children/grandchildren.
I keep picture books handy near my comfortable chair. If I am
waiting for something to come out of the oven or the washing
machine and I have five minutes, I scoop up a two-year-old,
plunk a four-year-old down beside me, open a book and start
reading. There, alone with the children, I can be as dramatic
as can be. I can act out the story or read it from the book.
I can digress and tell the children about something similar
that happened to me, and I can ask them to share their own
experiences as they come to mind.
Once, when we were living in the States, we had over a month
of steady rain. The streets were flooded and there was
nothing to do but stay inside day after day. I decided to
read the children some rather long children's classics in
serial form.
Spaced out over several days, I read pages at a time from a
long book, acting out parts and giving parts to the children,
until their attention span gave out and they drifted off to
the toy box. Years later, the children still remembered those
stories and the afternoons we spent reading during that
unbelievably rainy winter.
One of my friends is somewhat of an artist. When her children
were young, she made felt finger puppets and decorated with
`liquid embroidery' to help her act out children's stories
and songs.
There is a cute song about five little monkeys jumping on a
bed. It teaches very young children about safety in the house
and at the same time, to count down from five to zero as the
monkeys fall off the bed, one by one.
My friend made five finger monkeys, and as each one fell off,
she would let a child remove a monkey from her hand, let it
fall dramatically, and hold it.
The whole thing took maybe five minutes of her time, but the
children enjoyed it immensely. They would jump up and down
and giggle with excitement.
In school, we had drama club only once a week. We Moms can be
actresses every day!
