Hello dear readers, do you consider yourself creative? I believe all parents are creative, whether they know it or not.
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Are you aware of the secret passageway present in minivans?
My husband did not have this information at school drop-off one morning. You can’t find this in the instruction booklet for the car. No, the secret passageway was developed out of desperation. A preschooler was reluctant to get out of the car so I shoved the car seat forward and he exited from the back row. And the secret passageway was born.
Creativity is defined as:
the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work
Parents, it is time to embrace your artistic work.
Think of how you apply your imagination and original ideas daily. We like to relegate creativity to fit within certain categories and assign it to more traditional artistic mediums like painting, writing, photography, film, and so on. We don’t need to stay within these narrow interpretations. Indeed, the secret passageway will not end up in an art gallery (or will it?). And this isn’t about rocking a Pinterest craft project. But give yourself credit for all the creativity you are bringing to the table. You are employing creativity in the artistic work that is your parenthood most days (if not every day).
While writing this, I had to step away to remove a small pen from a tic-tac container (that was full at the time). Don’t ask why. This is my life. Creative problem-solving is all we parents do all day long. It may not feel as meaningful as a peace treaty or revolutionizing space travel but you are a problem solver. It feels a little like our kids are messing with challenging us by giving us complex situations to pick apart. Parenthood is just one big brain gym.
The trial and error of creativity
There are going to be a lot of starts and stops with this creativity. I was a theater kid once upon a time, my most notable high school role being a secretary who was drunk for most of the play. Playful parenting 101 is funny voices or characters to help your kids through challenging tasks and daily routines. With my talents, what a perfect fit? In early parenthood, I used the well-known “robot voice” to help toddlers get dressed. And it was not as magical as promised. It reliably led to my little ones getting dysregulated. This used up my last fumes of energy. Getting dressed was not complete and somehow my child was even less dressed. And my child’s worldly possessions were rapidly dumped all over their room. Example 1, 572, that there is wonderful parenting advice that works great for many but not all.
My kids are older and I am a little wiser. The inner theater kid is back. In moments of boredom or rising tension, a character or two may appear much to their delight (or horror). One day as I could feel myself falling asleep while reading, I started to read in a horrible British accent (I apologize to my readers in the UK). She is called Mrs. Butterscones. There is also Mean Granny (apologies to the grannies as well). As a parent, study your audience and finetune your timing.
You have it in you
I know you don’t always feel creative. You may even feel the opposite like all your creativity has been sucked out of you and replaced with deep exhaustion. Often, we focus so much on what we are producing—the final product. And our day-to-day certainly does not get served up like a finished manuscript or a framed photograph. But we are being pushed into creativity whether we know it or not.
More words on creativity and parenthood
Characters and secret passageways aside,
’s book, Work, Parent, Thrive: 12 Science-Backed Strategies to Ditch Guilt, Manage Overwhelm, and Grow Connection (When Everything Feels Like Too Much) has some very interesting and real science related to work-family enrichment. It may be possible that these creativity boosting family experiences may benefit your work life and vice versa.
