The Parent Bloggers Network

I can’t decide what’s more fun: reading “Get a Hobby!” itself, or reading the PBN reviews of it which have revealed some very interesting personality quirks of our bloggers.

You want examples?  One blogger has apparently been yearning to raise goats…and she doesn’t live on a farm:

“Is a couple of goats too much to ask? We can keep them in the backyard, they can eat our trash and grass, and we’ll be the talk of the neighborhood - if we aren’t already. Barry tells me the home owners association has “rules” and apparently this is one we choose to follow. I gave up the fight long ago, until my recent read of Get a Hobby! where they discuss animal husbandry in an urban setting. Intriguing. Tell me more!”

Another blogger may have found a new career catering for state fairs:

“And then, I saw it. There, on page 74, was the one hobby that seemed like the answer to my prayers.

Deep Frying. Yes, Deep Frying.

From the magical words …flaky coating around a soft warm interior to the recipe for Scottish deep fried Mars bar, I felt like the author was speaking just to me.”

A third blogger is thrilled to have found a way to justify her blogging obsession to her spouse:

“How sweet it is to know, I can now tell my husband that blogging will boost my mental and physical(?) health.”

All silliness aside, if you ask a mother about her hobbies, she’s likely to give you a blank stare.  “When I first became a stay at home mom, I was pretty overwhelmed with it. After a few months, I reached a good stretch where I felt somewhat in control (by that I mean I managed to shower when I wanted to and brush my teeth twice a day with at least a couple hours separating the brushes) only to give birth [again] and feel overwhelmed again.”  And even when mothers aren’t spending a good four hours a day wiping (other people’s) behinds, that nasty motherly guilt kicks in:  “Sometimes moms feel like they just don’t have the time to indulge in their hobbies because they’re busy with the kids all day, trying to juggle work, housework, and the mundane necessities of daily life. Other times they might feel guilty for using up precious time for something like a hobby.”

But as one reviewer astutely points out:

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

In other words, get a hobby or risk becoming a psychotic lunatic with a meat cleaver.

Perhaps I exaggerate, but Jack Nicholson’s shining example does remind us how important it is to balance work with play, to identify our passions and interests and make the time to pursue them.”

There you have it.  It’s imperative that we find something to occupy our time besides wiping (other people’s) behinds.  Preferably something that is all about US, at least for brief snatches of time here and there.

In Get a Hobby!, 101 activities are summarized.  “Each hobby segment gives an overview, a history, a list of materials needed, how to get started, a list of resources, and a project idea. For certain hobbies, like ant farming, there’s also a sidebar regarding hobby hazards.  The hobby list includes a bit of everything - whether you have plenty of money and time to devote to a new hobby or not much of either - you’ll be able to find something of interest.”

You can either start leafing through the list, or take the Hobby Personality Quiz to get an idea of which hobby traits fit you best.  The problem a few reviewers found is that “the book does not go the next step needed to spoon-feed me my dream hobby by cross-referencing my traits to the hobbies.”  Another blogger echoed this comment and made a novel suggestion (Ms. Barseghian, are you listening?):  “I would have really liked an index that sent me to the ones that were a good match … maybe an accompanying web site will spring up that will use the set of selected adjectives to send the reader directly to suggested activities?”

(Take note:  we bloggers are all about the hot new web applications.)

What I found especially fun was the approach some bloggers took - sharing the book with their older children:

“One page that caught my eye was the page on Lego building. My son is very into Legos, and I think some of the resources in the book will be fun for us to explore together.”

“The icing on the cake was my boys, flipping through the book finding things they’re interested in…lego building, model aircraft, balloon twisting, robot building…to name a few. (They also thought dumpster diving looked like fun, but I’m hoping they forget that one.)”

For parents of younger children, “Get a Hobby! is chock full of unique hobby ideas to get me off the couch and remembering myself, that self that I remember as so spontaneous pre-baby.”  And for parents of older children, remember that “summertime’s right around the corner, people, and those long hot days can indeed be deadly when you’ve got whining little ragamuffins complaining about how bored they are. It might serve you well to check out this book.”

More reviews of Get a Hobby! are coming up!  Don’t forget to leave a comment here or here to be entered to win a copy of the book and a $100 gift card from Michael’s Arts and Crafts.

6/5 - Snarky Momma, Mummy’s Product Reviews
6/6 - Growing a Life, Cape Buffalo
6/7 - mothergoosemouse, Marketing Mommy
6/8 - Mother Bumper, Domestic Diva
6/11 - Quarter Rest, Three Kid Circus
6/12 - Round-Up Review on PBN - Announcement of Winner!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Books, Giveaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.