Between a busy work schedule and the demands that come with being the mom of a toddler and an infant, daily life is a whirlwind for Danielle Wharton. Quiet, distraction-free moments of family time are precious, and reading together is a way to build those moments into their daily routine.
“The highlight of my day is to have quiet, intentional, no-distraction time with both of them,” Danielle said. “It’s so important, just because there’s no phones, there’s no screens, there’s no competing sounds or responsibilities.”
A moment when her oldest child, Sutton (now 2), was just a few months old has stayed with her, and encapsulates how she thinks about reading time.
“I have a memory that I think back to a lot, when I had just gone back to work with Sutton,” Danielle said. “And I just felt so overwhelmed. I was present, but not able to be present, if that makes sense. And there was this moment where we were reading ‘Goodnight Moon’. And it was the pace of the book, and the simplicity of it. I can’t even remember what the phrase was, but the end of the book is so simple and calming that I just realized, you don’t need to be anywhere else in this moment than in this book with your kid. And that has been something that I’ve carried with me.”
Reading together became a regular part of their bedtime routine when Sutton was a baby. As he grew, it expanded into other moments of their days, and also became a helpful way to redirect an active toddler’s energy.
“As he’s gotten older and his interests have continued to expand, it’s definitely been something that’s integrated into our morning routine, or when we get home from daycare,” Danielle said. “Any moment that we need a pullback, into calmness and togetherness. It’s what we always pick up on to kind of level set the vibe, if you will.”
Reading is also part of the bedtime routine for Danielle’s 5-month-old daughter, Landon, and is already cherished time for both of them.
“She is so engaged,” Danielle said. “She is locked in at the end of the night. For her routine right now, it’s the last thing that we do right before she goes to bed. And at every page, she’s trying to grab at the book.”
Danielle and her husband have used books to help Sutton understand and adjust to big changes, like becoming a big brother, or new concepts, like visiting the dentist for the first time. (Danielle said a tip from a Daniel Tiger book about the dentist, for kids to pretend to roar like a lion with no sound, worked like a charm at Sutton’s first visit.)
“Books have been a really nice, calming, and informative way, in an age-appropriate way, that he’s been able to start wrapping his mind around something that’s new and might be scary,” Danielle said.
Reading together touches many areas of their family life, and is something Danielle describes as a pillar of her relationships with her children. She hopes it’s time they’ll always remember.
“It’s a fear, right? I think for most working parents, is, what will you remember of the limited time that we have together?” she said. “And I just hope that they remember that quiet, slow-paced, intentional time with me at the end of their day. I hope that he thinks about that, and I hope she thinks about that, of, you know, the time that we did have together. That they think, ‘She wasn’t just there, but she was with me.'”