316. Fun Mom Day

Nora is NOT a fun mom. But for one day, she tried to be.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

Nora McInerny: 

I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay, and I  am not  a fun mom. I try to be, I want to be, I intend to be, and then I’m just not.  And I made a huge mistake back in 2023, just one, I made one mistake. Are you ready to hear it?  I told my kids that when school was out, I would take them to an arcade. A place that I do not enjoy, one of those giant warehouses with laser tag and bowling and a ropes course and tons of expensive arcade games that pay out points you can use to buy garbage that will just go in a landfill.

Do you see why I’m not a fun mom? So summer 2023, it got away from us. It got away from me. So we didn’t go to the arcade and it does not matter that we went to Las Vegas and they went to a giant arcade there.

It doesn’t matter that we went bowling where there is like a mini arcade. It doesn’t matter that we went. paddleboarding, nature’s arcade, that we went to the drive in movie theater. The only thing that mattered to them is that I said we would go to the arcade they had in mind. And then we didn’t go. And that’s on me because I made a promise and I broke it.

And it’s hard to build trust when you have disappointed someone, especially when that someone is a little kid who loves you.  So one Sunday, a day that I usually dread because it is screen free Sunday, which is something I impose on them, a choice I made. I said, Hey boys, get dressed. It is time for fun mom day.

And they said, Oh my God, yes. What is fun mom day?  And I said, it’s a day of fun  with mom. We are going to go to Swig. Which is a soda shop. I don’t know how to explain it other than if you’ve seen Mormon Soda TikTok, that’s what I’m talking about. We’re gonna go to Swig, we’re gonna get a giant soda. We’re gonna go thrifting.

And we are going to the arcade.  Cheers. Went through the crowd. The crowd of three children. And that’s what we did. We got in a car, we went to the soda place, I pumped them full of artificial colors and flavors and sugars, we went to several thrift stores so they could shop for the ancient electronics that they find fascinating, and then we went to the arcade. 

And man, I hated that part.  But I loved how happy they were to just hang out with me and hang out with each other. I loved watching Sophie help her baby brother through the ropes course that he was so excited about until he actually got up there.  I loved watching them try to do the math and see what they could quote unquote buy with their points, which was not much. 

I loved being the fun mom.  Even for a day.