My daughter hated naps. We tried reading and rocking, snuggles and shushing, blackout curtains and flat out begging, and her baby blues would still pop open after twenty or thirty minutes. Before I’d finished putting away the pile of books we’d paged through for forty-five minutes before she’d even consider sleeping, she was refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of her day.
I was not.
Finding “me too” moments
We started going for drives every few days, a looping route that took us past a nearby stable. I told her we were “going to see the horses,” knowing her eyes would grow heavy at some point during the ride, and her naps lasted longer that way than they did when I coaxed her to sleep.
I didn’t talk about it, surrounded by friends who seemed to have kids who blissfully fell asleep in their cribs and slumbered for hours. I finally confessed to a friend whose eyes lit up. It seemed she, too, had a nap route, one that took her past a drive through Starbucks and near a construction site with big trucks her son loved to see.
Those “me, too!” moments can link us together more tightly with friends and can forge bonds with people with whom we aren’t sure we have much in common.
Storytelling show celebrates motherhood
Listen to Your Mother Metro Detroit seeks to bring that “me too” moment to audiences by bringing storytellers to the stage at St. Andrew’s Hall and “giving motherhood a microphone.”
The project is half live-stage event, half social media project, with an acclaimed book and YouTube channel nearly 1500 stories deep.
LTYM serves as a bridge that connects local writers with our local community and with the world. Listen to Your Mother Show started with one performance in Madison, Wisconsin in 2010 and has now become a North American movement creating a new way to celebrate Mother’s Day by giving Motherhood a microphone.
LTYM shares stories of every facet of mothering–being a mom, or not being a mom, having a mom or other caretaker, losing a mom, finding a mom — all of the beauty, the beast, and the barely-rested of motherhood.
41 live events are happening in the US and Canada featuring local writers, and our city was selected to produce a show for our community featuring our local writers.
Local moms bring LTYM to Detroit for the third year
I’m honored — and thrilled — to be co-producing and co-directing Listen to Your Mother Metro Detroit for the third year. My co-producer, Angela Youngblood, and I are Metro Detroit moms who are juggling motherhood, jobs, and our passion for giving a voice to storytellers in the Metro Detroit area.
We love that our stage has hosted women — and a man — who range from professional writers and performers to people who have never told their stories in front of an audience. Each story, and each storyteller, shines a light on a different part of motherhood — mothers, daughters, those who love their mothers, those who hate their mothers, every voice has a place in Listen to Your Mother.
This Mother’s Day season, I’d love for you to experience Listen to Your Mother Metro Detroit for yourself.
Join us at St. Andrew’s Hall on Sunday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. — doors open at 2:00 p.m.
You can buy tickets at Live Nation, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets to a Detroit Moms Blog reader!
To enter for a chance to win, comment by Friday, April 29 and let us know who you’d love to take to the show!
