Play time

The days of being a stay at home mom are some of the most precious memories I will ever keep. Everyday I watched as my daughter discovered something new. We set up routines that defend our days and although I wasn't becoming book smart like my peers..I was becoming mommy smart.

I kept a log of all her happenings in a baby book. Now as I write this, I am skimming through the sacred memories of my little girl's firsts.


I moved us from inside my mother and step father's house to the small two bedroom apartment above the garage. At sixteen I was ready to raise her on my own , to live on my own and still could not afford a place of our own totally on my own.


When we came home from St. Agnes I called and set up for a parent aid to come out and see us. At that time, you could do so on a self referral. Once a week we had an angel of a parent aid come and visit us. She brought small activities I could do with DeAna and talked about what mile stones she should be reaching at what age.

We also attended playgroups almost everyday. The play groups run by the agency that my parent aid came from, play groups from Birth to Three, because my parent aid referred her to them. She wouldn't talk in front of the woman because she was she, and I guess she didn't believe me when I said she could talk, so Deana started receiving Birth to three services for her speech, which meant a home visit from them as well as playgroups. I also signed her up for playgroups run through the Family Resource center at the school. Then there was a twice a month playgroup run just for teen mothers.

Playgroups were a wonderful thing. Being one of the youngest mothers, I had older mothers to ask questions of. DeAna got to participate in activities with other little ones and we attended many field trips to places. I became life long friends with a few of these moms. We swapped free child care and our kids grew up together. DeAna now in her teens is still friends with the children she played with when she was still in diapers.

Outside of playgroups, I ran our day as if it were an extension of. We were always blowing bubbles outside, singing songs, playing with play dough or boxes of dry noodles, playing with water, making crafts, or dancing to music. I was still young enough to remember how to play and wasn't tired from a job or school, so I had nothing to do but play.

In someways, for all the struggles, there were advantages to being a teenage mom.