Why This Momma Joined A Book Club

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book clubThe teacher in me can list ten different reasons why it is amazingly important for your child to read every day. The teacher in me can give a parent loads of tips on how to get your child to read and enjoy what she is reading. (In fact, I have, if you want my two cents on the issue, click here). Yet, the mom in me, as of late, has consistently said, “Oh, I wish I had time to read.” The teacher in me and the mom in me are obviously in a fight over this. 

I used to read constantly. You, know back in the days before kids when I had this thing called free time. I was never far from a book. The Barnes and Noble membership has long since expired, and life has changed. That free time seems like a distant fantasy of a memory. Yet, without a book in hand, how could I possibly instill in my daughter all the virtues of reading? If I myself don’t take the time to do it, would the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do idea have as much merit? 

I find the time for dinners out with friends, Facebook and Instagram, for almost anything I really want to do, but when it comes time for books, it’s impossible to carve out a moment or two?

My daughter can see right through that…not reading my own books tells my kids that reading is just not that important.

Which, as a teacher, English literature major, and all-around academic, is the exact opposite of the values I want to instill in the two young minds that call me mom.  

So, I settled down with a book in hand and read. In fact, I carved out time in the day where everyone in the family had to read their own book simultaneously. At first, I’ll admit, my mind was elsewhere. It was on the seemingly endless list of chores I had to get done. Yet, little by little, it worked! It felt great doing something that was using my brain differently. And, I was doing something that seemed a little selfish, like a little time just for me (even though it did benefit the kids too). 

Then, I took it one step further. I joined a book club. I love talking about books and hearing what other people have to say about books. Yet, who has time for going to someone’s house, finding childcare to do so, only to have forgotten half of the things they wanted to say about the book to begin with? Not this mom… so an online book club it is! 

Online solves most of my other problems, watching missed TV shows, shopping, learning a DIY project, so why not a book club?

The Westchester County Mom online book club is exactly the cure for the reader, who like me, wants to discuss current books without the commitment of actual face to face discussion time

Reading one book a month gives me time to do so at my pace while still tackling all those other mom-jobs that come up from day to day. (Stinking laundry – why doesn’t that pile ever disappear?!). Plus, the members are fun Westchester moms like me! I have read more through this book club than I have in the decade since I became a mom. For me, joining in was a perfect fit.

I will admit, there are times I buy the book and don’t get life together enough to read it all the way through (or at all). There are other times when I listen to Audible on the way to work. Regardless, I have done something that brings me joy, helps me be a positive role model for my children and keeps the academic-sided teacher in me from going crazy.

If you haven’t had time to read a good book lately, take the time. Find a few minutes. Show your kid it is worth it. 

Now, if only I could find a way for online life to solve my other daily issues, online laundry service perhaps? Online dusting club? 

Join us! Check out Mom’s The Word on Facebook. 

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Kristen
Kristen is the proud mom of two wonderful, smart and sassy daughters (born in 2007 and 2011). Raising her kids as a single mom is a challenge and an adventure and she loves every minute of it. Kristen loves bringing up her girls in the same area of Westchester that she grew up in, having only moved a few miles from her childhood home. A long time passion for working with children led Kristen to pursue a career in education and she has been an elementary school teacher in the Bronx for over a decade. Her teaching career has taught her that every day is a new experience and to "expect the unexpected." If she can find any spare time between teaching and motherhood, Kristen likes to read, binge watch horrible romantic comedies on TV, bake, and go on road trips with her girls.