10 Easy Ways to Bring Back the Fun Mom Vibes!

The majority of us would like to think of ourselves as fun, happy moms. I mean, we love our kids and we love being moms, right? But does motherhood actually bring out the joy and happiness in us? I thought it did in me…until I realized it had been a long time since I actually had a really good laugh with my kids. talk about mom guilt

That’s when I paid closer attention to the candid pictures of me with my family, you know, the ones that had me scowling in concern instead of living in the moment.

Before you say it, yes, I TOTALLY get it…being a mom is hard work and it’s busy work. Not all of us feel we have the luxury of “living in the moment”. I know I for sure didn’t feel that way when I was a new mom.

But just because we are busy moms always working to keep our little ones happy (let alone, ALIVE!), that doesn’t mean we should spend our motherhood years feeling less than so. We can be that fun parent that enjoys endless knock-knock jokes, overflowing bubble baths, and silly faces in public.

Read: How to be a Happier mom!

If this is you, wanting to be a more playful mother (and not just on Mother’s Day), then you’ve come to the right place! Because if anyone has had to work at this, it’s me. So hang in there, mama, keep reading, and hopefully together we can make a solid step towards being that happy mom we so want to be.

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How can I be a fun mom again?

Being a fun mom was something I had to purpose to be. I mean, it really took work, because I had fallen into a parenting default mode that was far from fun and I am not a silly person, to begin with. But children need silly. Almost as much as they need structure.

But if you were to ask me what were some things I started working on that really helped, these are the things I would tell you:

1. Laugh together

My girls are addicted to funny animal memes. They will literally spend hours scrolling through Pinterest looking at all the memes and laughing until there are tears rolling down their cheeks.

One day my middle daughter begged me to look at them with her. I had other things to do but I also knew I needed to spend some time with her doing the things she enjoys doing.

So we did. And we laughed until there were tears in our eyes. Then when those dried up, we turned to funny animal videos and cried some more.

Before I knew it, I was feeling lighthearted and in a much better mood than before. It ended up being a fun activity that we could bond over and is now a favorite way for us to pass the time when we are waiting anywhere.

Whatever you can do to laugh more with your children, it’s so worth it. Laughing is the number one thing that has helped me to be more fun and relatable to my kids and my go-to whenever I feel myself sliding back into that parenting rut of always being serious all the time.

Make it Fun!

Create your own memes or make a video doing something crazy. They’ll make great memories you can look back on and laugh over for years to come.

2. Have a random dance party

I love to dance, but dancing with my kids always made me a bit self-conscious. But there was always a daughter begging me to dance with them so I swallowed my pride and started danced with my kids. The dancing’s always horrible but the laughter’s contagious and now it’s one of our favorite things to do.

In fact, I have a playlist of crazy songs that bring out the silly in us and whenever I feel like there is a lot of tension in the house, I’ll call the girls into the living room, turn on the music, grab their hands and start dancing.

They will groan and roll their eyes but it doesn’t take long to get them into the fun. And before the song’s over, we are all smiles and the tension is gone. Because they love that mom is having fun and that’s something they have a hard time resisting. 🙂

Make it Fun!

Create your own dance moves to one of your favorite songs and don’t forget to record it!

3. Sing along to songs

I do not sing well, but I learned that my kids don’t care. Not when it comes to having fun with mom in the car with a song turned up and all of us belting out the words.

But we don’t stop there. We turn on our Disney Pandora and sing our hearts out while making dinner, cleaning the house, or even just relaxing on the couch coloring.

It’s really liberating when you’ve had a stressful day. And everyone’s smiling after just a few songs.

Make it Fun!

Rewrite the words to a song and make them about your family instead.

4. Set up a family group chat

This has been one of my favorite things my husband has set up for our family. With all the inside jokes we have and all the memes we come across in a day’s time, we are always communicating via our group chat.

It’s a really great way to feel connected throughout the day and keeps those smiles fresh. My girls especially love it when I send them some of my FB memories for that day and they get to remember some funny things they said/did as a kid.

Make it Fun!

Let your kids know you are thinking of them by sending fun pics of you with a silly filter.

READ: How to Keep Your Child’s Heart

5. Play games together

We have so many games in our home but that doesn’t always mean we play them all the time. In fact, with our busy lives, this has been something we’ve had to schedule to do.

Our family favorite is Monopoly or Catan. We schedule a few hours in the week to play and we’ll get some snacks and our favorite drinks purchased beforehand and have a great time together.

But we also have faster games we like to play like UNO, Nertz, and TENZI. These can be intense games but they are crazy fun!

Make it Fun!

Have fun prizes for the winners of the games and silly consequences for those who don’t win.

Learn how to make your own Backyard Jenga Set here!

6. Do a project together

Before my hysterectomy, I had chronic anemia and a heart arrhythmia that robbed me of energy and left me out of so many things my kids were doing.

Now that my health has greatly improved, I’ve tried to do as many things with my girls as I can and they have been great sources of memory-making and laughter.

Whether it’s an assignment for school, a craft or just working on cleaning, getting involved in something together has been so good for all of us.

Make it Fun!

Break it up every 30 minutes to an hour with a dance party or a Chinese fire drill outside of your home.

7. Eat dinner together

Some of our best conversations happen around the dinner table. We have a “no topic off limits” rule in our home so you can imagine the conversations we have. 😉

There’s hardly a meal that goes by when we don’t laugh together or some inside family joke doesn’t get an honorable mention.

It’s a really fun way for everyone to come together after a long day of school and work to spend time connecting.

Make it Fun!

Have themed dinner nights from movies you’ve seen or places you’ve been.

8. Have some traditions

I love traditions so much. Growing up, they were what got me through some very rough days. They were constant and always attached to special times that I could look back on and also look forward to.

We have lots of traditions in our home. We have Friday pizza-and-a-movie night, we have birthday traditions, holiday traditions, game traditions, first/last day of school traditions, fall traditions…

There are endless ideas for traditions and they can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. But taking time to create some of your own really is a great way to have fun together.

Make it Fun!

Have everyone think of one tradition they would like to incorporate and them make it happen.

9. Enjoy time outdoors

There’s just something about sunshine and fresh air that brings out the kid in all of us.

Our family loves to swim and we usually have our pool up most of the summer so we spend as much time out there as possible. But even when it’s too cold to swim, we try to spend some time outside every day.

You can take walks together, ride bikes, play frisbee, swing at the playground. Don’t just send your kids out to play, go out there with them!

Make it Fun!

Create a scavenger hunt or fill some water balloons for some water fun.

10. Find a movie series to enjoy

My girls have their favorite shows that they love and have seen countless times. But I always look for series we can enjoy together on our movie nights or when we just want to relax for a bit.

Watching a show together allows you to revisit the funny parts of the conversation later. And it makes for awesome inside jokes when you come across someone who looks like a character you know from a movie or something that reminds you of a favorite scene.

Make it Fun!

Once a month, go all out for movie night by dressing up as favorite characters and making themed snacks.

Bonus: More fun activities

• Make sandwiches and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes

• Lay on a blanket together and find shapes in the clouds

• Use sidewalk chalk for outdoor fun

• Create your own ice cream

• Make fairy houses

• Leave messages for the kids with these fun Window Crayons

• Put on a play or act out a book or movie

• Invite the neighbor kids for a movie outdoors

• Get your mom friends together and plan a party just-because

• Have a picnic

• Fly a kite

• Serve fruit/veggie animals or shish kabobs

• Make a scrapbook of a favorite activity or vacation

• Wash the family car together

• Try a new recipe with the kids

• Concoct “magic” potions using nature

• Visit a new town and find something unique to do

• Go to the park and play on the equipment with them

• Walk some trails and see how many animals you can spot

• Visit a pet store

• Make sock puppets with scrap material

• Find a single mom you could do something nice for together

• Wash dirty dishes together with tons of soap suds

• Create your own painting class at home

• Play charades

CLICK HERE to Download the PDF Version of the below Printable

Conclusion

If you are like me, you might be thinking this goes against your grain or that it’ll take work. And you’d be right. It was for me. But I found the more I practiced (yes, practiced), the easier and more naturally this came to me.

I still have to work on laughing more, especially on stressful days, but those are the days I need it most. Because you’ll find being a fun mom isn’t just for your kids. It’s for you, too.

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