Off to the Library

In the age of Audible, Kindle and Amazon, it may have been a while since your last visit to the local library, but if you are a parent of a little one and wondering how to get through these long winter weeks until the warm weather rolls around…let me make a suggestion…

The public library offers a lot, and well worth the price (FREE) of a library card. To start with the obvious, most if not all libraries have children’s rooms where weekly story times occur. Moms of newborns, “lapsit story time” is what you are looking for. To be clear, this event is not about your baby listening and enjoying a story, so much as this is for you, a chance to get out of the house, with your baby in an environment that provides an opportunity to meet other moms in your community and perhaps make some mom friends. No one is expecting a quiet room in lap sit story time, and it’s a good place to practice breastfeeding in public (the more you practice, the easier it is!)

Libraries offer much more than story times. Most offer free/discount admission to museums including the MFA, Children’s Museum, Museum of Science and even the New England Aquarium. Again, these are options less for your little one to enjoy at this age, but a change of scenery for you and something different than wandering the aisles of Target of laps at the local mall.

So dig out the library card that perhaps you haven’t used in a while, or fill out an application at the desk for a new one! Libraries are an integral part of any community, and can be a welcome gathering place to make new connections as well as foster an early love of reading!