Guest Post: On Being a Mom and a Children's Librarian

Hi everyone! I'm on maternity leave and some friends have graciously written guest posts to keep my blog from getting too bare while I'm off. Today's is by the amazing Melissa of Mel's Desk. As a mom-to-be I was very curious how my perspective on youth librarianship would change once I had children of my own and Mel was kind enough to talk about her experience. This is a topic I haven't seen covered much (at all?) in the library-world, so I found it fascinating. I hope some of you will chime in and comment about how your status as a parent (and not a parent, whether you want to have children of your own or not) has impacted your perspective and career. I would love to see some honest conversation on such an important topic. Thanks Mel for getting it started! --Anne

On Being a Mom and a Children's Librarian

Just about the same time as Anne headed off on maternity leave with her brand new baby, MY baby, my younger daughter, graduated from elementary school. My family is entering a new tweens-and-teens only phase, and the impact of that will not be only felt at home! For the first time in almost a decade, I will be working as a early childhood and children's librarian without a young child of my own in my house.

Now I don't believe in the slightest that one must have children in order to be an excellent children's librarian—any more than I think my vet must have cats of their own in order to take excellent care of mine. But I can say that in my case, being both a children's librarian and a mom with young children turned out to be a fun and beneficial overlap.

Here's some of the reasons why:

Reader's Advisory

Reading books a few times a week to real kids in storytime is one thing; reading books to real kids a few times a DAY, every single day, for YEARS, kicks it all up a notch. Reading to my girls gave me a chance to learn my Ranganathan all over again. Every reader her book? Every book its reader? Absolutely. It's not that I didn't already know that a library should have a wide variety of materials, but spending hours of my life (I kid you not) reading, for instance, this book really drove the point home. For a time at our house, the critical features of children's literature were lift-the-flaps and animal noises, not plot, characters, or Caldecott-worthy illustrations. Being reminded of this on a daily basis at home made me a much better reader's advisor at the library; more flexible and willing to think outside of the box to meet a family's needs.

Program Planning

Guess what I discovered? Library programs = birthday parties. At least, one kind of library program! As my kids grew, I found that the same basic formula that worked for designing birthday parties worked just as well for planning library programs. While my daughters were small, pretty much any idea my husband and I could come up with for a birthday party activity, I could recycle into a kids' program element. Crafts that I developed for the library, I used again at home. As the girls got older, a fun dinner time conversation was “planning Mommy's next program.” I totally relied on them for using their experience at dozens of parties and programs for whipping one of my vague activity ideas into shape! For a few years there, I lived in a sweet spot of brainstorming, where what I did with children at the library gave me fresh ideas to try with my girls at home, and ideas I encountered with my girls—at the zoo, at playdates, in their classrooms, on vacation—all funneled right back to the library.

Children's Development

I didn't come to library work from the education world, and I have never taken a class in children's development in my life. So having kids of my own, and watching them grow and learn and develop, has added such a valuable dimension to my understanding of what books, materials, programs, and services might be appropriate for children and their families. I do not make the mistake of thinking that because I know my particular two children well, that I know every child well, or that because I know my family's home life, that I am aware of what everybody's family is like. But being right there while my girls learned to crawl, and point, and walk, and draw, and tell stories, and learn letters, and make friends, and read...those marvelous experiences have given me a scaffold on which to build as I continue to read and study and learn about brain development, educational competencies, early literacy skills, and new directions for family library services.

Guess what I discovered? Library programs = birthday parties. At least, one kind of library program! As my kids grew, I found that the same basic formula that worked for designing birthday parties worked just as well for planning library programs. While my daughters were small, pretty much any idea my husband and I could come up with for a birthday party activity, I could recycle into a kids' program element. Crafts that I developed for the library, I used again at home. As the girls got older, a fun dinner time conversation was “planning Mommy's next program.” I totally relied on them for using their experience at dozens of parties and programs for whipping one of my vague activity ideas into shape! For a few years there, I lived in a sweet spot of brainstorming, where what I did with children at the library gave me fresh ideas to try with my girls at home, and ideas I encountered with my girls—at the zoo, at playdates, in their classrooms, on vacation—all funneled right back to the library.