Mamas, listen up: this show is going to be a HUGE celebration of Mother’s Day in all its beauty and chaos.
Gwen and I went to the Listen to Your Mother rehearsal on Saturday and got to hear all our fellow cast members’ stories. At times, we laughed so hard we cried. And other times we just straight-up cried.
Seriously, we were blown away by the talented writers who will be representing all the amazing faces of motherhod. I’ll give you a little hint about what Gwen and I will be reading about based on the titles: Booby Trap and Are We Done Yet? We’d love for all our NWA mama friends to come see us in the show! (It will be good to look out and see your faces ‘cuz we are just a teensy bit nervous about it! Ha!)
The Listen to Your Mother show (NWA style) is Sunday, April 29th, at Walton Arts Center’s Starr Theater. Today we’re giving away TWO tickets to the show. Woo-hoo! The winner can bring along her best mama friend, her own mama or even her husband. We promise it will be a bonding experience.
If you don’t want to hedge your bets, you can go ahead and buy tickets online from the Walton Arts Center website, call 479.443.5600, or stop by the box office on Dickson Street. Tickets are $18 and ALL the net proceeds go to the local Arkansas Visitation and Exchange Center (AVEC), which assists families going through difficult times. The show is expected to sell out, so get your tickets sooner rather than later!
HOW TO ENTER: To win the two tickets to see Listen to Your Mother, click on the orange comment button at the bottom of this post and tell us one of your favorite stories about this crazy, blissful, amazing privilege we call motherhood — or even one about your own mother. I love to tell my daughter about the day she was born and she loves to hear the one about how she threw a temper tantrum in Rick’s Bakery and they practically threw us out of the place. As far as a story about my mother, we always loved it when she threw responsibility out the window (which was rare) and acted like one of the kids. I still remember her beating me in a race that one time.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS: If you really, really want to hear these amazing stories about motherhood, you can easily increase your odds of winning. Just email your friends/family about the giveaway and we’ll give you an extra chance to win for each person you tell. Just be sure to put giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com on the CC line of your email so we can give you proper credit.
ABOUT THE SHOW: Listen To Your Mother is a national series of live readings — from mothers who publish online — in celebration of Mother’s Day. Each production is directed, produced, and performed by local communities, for local communities.
After the first (very successful) 2010 premier Listen To Your Mother show in Madison, bloggers began asking for LTYM shows in their communities.
Last year, LTYM national director Ann Imig hand-picked bloggers to produce local LTYM shows in five cities across the country in celebration of Mother’s Day 2011.
This year, Northwest Arkansas was added to the line-up, thanks to the persistence of local author/blogger Lela Davidson. She’s producing/directing the NWA show along with fellow mama blogger Stephanie McCratic.
We talked to Ann about what the LTYM show means to moms and communities:
Why do you think this show resonates so much with mothers and audiences?
I think LTYM comes at a time of an interesting dichotomy in Motherhood. In some ways I think our generation of parents has more pressure than ever. We’re supposed to scrutinize every ingredient on every morsel of food we feed our kids (for those of us who can even afford to consider it).
Married along with Martha Stewart Weddings and mothering along with pinterest suggests our homes–even our children’s lunches– should be organized, beautiful, and craftastic (and organic and environmental) at all times. The image of the hard-bodied “MILF” pervades the media and even for those of us who balk at it–it’s there, lingering in our psyche. And many people are doing this with less income and resources than they need.
I could go on and on (and now I know what my next blog post is going to be about). This coincides with an opportunity for Mothers to speak out like never before–through the blogosphere and now through LTYM. I think we need each other to laugh and cry through all this pressure–to validate and celebrate the realities and work of raising humans and being women.
Why do you think it’s so important for the shows to be produced, directed and performed by local communities? Oh, and how did Lela really convince you that NWA needed to produce a LTYM show?
LTYM is successful because we select people who are experts, show leadership tendencies, and are involved both in their local community and online. We select cities where we know the hosts have connections to fund their show, can find talent, and create a celebration that will resonate with their community. The other prerequisite is an enormous desire to do the show, because it’s a lot of work and especially for people who’ve never produced or directed. Lela has that winning combination. Plus, have you met her? You can’t help but say yes to Lela.
So many writers are introverts. How did you get that first group of women in Madison to agree to read their stories out loud?I have not found that writers are introverts. Quite the contrary–I’ve found that people in general are dying to be heard. Even if they’re scared out of their wits to get up to that podium–they do.
How has LTYM evolved since that first one just two years ago? Since my first show in Madison, LTYM has become an unstoppable giant. I’m running after her, trying to catch up.
Thanks for sharing, Ann!
We’re honored to be part of this show. Here’s a list of the NWA cast (click on each name to see where they blog and click HERE to read all the mamas’ bios):
Jasmine Brown
One thing that I will always love about my mother is here willingness to travel. Her excitement about hitting the road or jumping on plane was contagious! We camped a lot growing up- two kids, two dogs and a VW Vanagon. Probably one of my most memorable “wake ups” was having her sitting on my bed asking, “Do you want to go to Ireland?” I was 14 and two weeks later I was there!
My favorites always entail how awesome of a mother I was BEFORE I had children. Bribing children in Target with candy? How awful! Kids throwing tantrums in a restaurant? They need to discipline that child! Being annoyed by this precious little one who just needs a hug and kiss? How selfish!
If only I had the patience and will to be the mother I was before I had children. 😉
It’s really hard for me to pick just one….I think my favorite would be how my mom was always able to find her sense of humor and make me laugh even in the most “unfunniest” of times….I was accident prone and also had several surgeries….her humor was needed so many times 🙂
The story I wanted to share at LTYM has to do with sleep, so I guess I’ll share that 🙂 My kid does not sleep well; never has. I have a friend with a 6 month old who just pulled 13 hours — Anna is more likely to do 5 or 6 at a stretch. Saturday morning she woke me up at 4 saying she was hungry! But I know all those moments by her bedside are precious and fleeting (even though the past 2.5 years seem like forever!) and I’ll get some nice karmic payback if she ever has kids who don’t sleep 🙂
True story and will have you laughing until you cry. My son was about five, his coat had been dirty so I threw it in the wash the night before. As usual we were rushing around. That evening when I returned home from work, my husband pulled my black velvet thong from his pocket and said look at what your son took to school. Yes apparently by the magic of static cling my underwear was plastered to the back of my son’t coat for all the world to see. Sidenote, the song black velvet has been my ringtone ever since.
Would be fun to take my daughter in law, mother of my only grands.
My daughter loves for me to tell her the story about the time we were at the mall and she was squirming so bad while I was changing her diaper. There wasn’t anything I could do to keep her on the bench! Poop fell on the floor and I wanted to cry. People were walking by!! I was so upset and laughing at the same time that I just let her run around with no diaper on. Finally, I was able to calm her down long enough for me to put a new diaper on her! I know someone must have seen the whole episode and must still be laughing or mortified!!
I remember the day my daughter turned 1 year old. I nursed her and held her during her entire nap. She was not walking yet but I knew when she walked she would walk away from me and i wanted to just hold her and look at her. She is 22 years old now and I can still see her sweet sleeping face.
Several of my friends and acquaintances are Reading At LTYM, i just can’t wait to hear their stories.
I love that my mom spent so much time playing games, reading books, gardening, and just enjoying life with us. She’s a great example to me that my kids won’t remember that our house is a giant disaster 99% of the time but they will remember the time I invest in them.
Being a mom, wow, there is so much to love. I hope to always remember the sweetness in my son’s voice, the faces he makes, and those really genuine sloppy kisses, runny nosed and all.
I also love to watch my mom with my children…..I watch her laugh and time stands still. There is such joy in her eyes. That will always stay with me.
My motherhood journey just restarted from the beginning, so now I am enjoying a teen, a tween, and a baby! Learning to love every stage!
My youngest, a 5 year old asked me if I was going to ever have another baby (my body yelling, HECK NO) and I say to him, “I don’t think so, babe”. He answers to me, “but, can’t we just get one at the hospital?”.
This is gross I know, but my daughter loves to hear the story of how she spread poop out of her diaper on the wall and my son loves to hear how he would pee all over the wall. They just love potty humor.
I love to tell the story of my little guy Harvie breaking not one, but BOTH his wrists.
We lived out in the country and he had just learned how to climb trees. He played with the three little girls up the road a lot. Well one day he was outside playing with the girls. I heard this awful cry coming up the front steps. In stepped Harvie, 7 with big ole crocodile tears streaming down his face saying his arms hurt. I checked him out, nothing seemed to be wrong. We cleaned him up and he didn’t want to go back outside. It was getting close to bedtime anyway, so I gave him a snack, some tylenol and sent him to bed. He woke up the next morning with 2 very swollen wrists, so off to the ER we went. The ER nurse asked him what he did to which he replied “I was swinging like a monkey and Emma (his, as he put it, girlfriend) distracted me. I fell from the tree.” The nurse, while doing his x-rays, then asked him if he was trying to impress the little girl. Harvie replied “yes, she’s my girlfriend!” The joys of being a mom!
I have 4 year old twins and it amazes me to hear them use words that I think they don’t understand. However, they use them correctly. This past weekend the girls were playing with something and one of them was not getting her way. Instead of getting upset (we were in the truck) She said “Frustraation”. My husband was driving and we cracked up laughing. She is such a mess. Cracks me up and totally makes the 2am yelling for mommy worth it”
A not-so-proud Mommy moment…when I locked myself out of the house with my toddler son inside. I never wished so hard that he knew how to open doors than at that moment. And it was raining. And he found the scissors. You can’t make this stuff up, nor would I want to! I’d LOVE to hear the other Mama’s stories!
With three kids, it’s really hard to pick a favorite mommy moment. I wish time would slow down a little. My kids are growing up too fast! I hope I’m helping make some great moments for them to remember.
I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old, very rarely do they get along but when they do it is music to my ears. Most nights if there is time before dinner is ready they run around the house as superheros. They put there arms out and make a swooshing sound to look like they are flying. Man those times a wonderful and so fun to watch.
You know how little toddlers will find a string or something and bring it to you…like a prize? When my son was 2 he came to me, fist closed, to give me a prize…of course I opened my hand to accept…and it was a LIVE SPIDER!
During dinner at the camp ground, Addyson started screaming that there was a black bean in her nose… I blew her off… How could there be, right?? Wrong, after several minutes of her crying and not being able to talk her out of it, I flipped her over and saw the black bean in her nose! Then I said, “We DON’T put black beans in our nose!!” #thingsonlyamothersays
Love hearing kid’s big words! One favorite in our household was ‘excamator’ (excavator)! One day we were driving down the road and my son, probably 3.5 at the time said, “Mommy, stop antagonizing me!” Guess I told him to stop antagonizing his brother more than I thought!
My daughter loves to hear the story of the day we let our families know that baby would make 3. It was a crazy day with lots of confusion that led to half the family thinking my oldest sister, whose husband has been fixed, and the other half thinking my second older sister who had just recently divorced were the pregnant ones. Only my sis-in-law figured it out. It’s a pretty funny story but too hard to explain in writing and the translation would be totally lost!
I locked my daughter in the Mini Van after I put her in the car seat….I then remembered she is double Jointed and was teaching her how she can get out of it! She did do it, but then she took advantage of it and before we would get to our street she would get out….Thank God she stopped doing that!
Would love to win a set of tickets.