Joslyn Taylor believes that having children doesn’t sentence parents to a life of Chuck E. Cheese andGymboree classes. (Not that there’s anything wrong with either.)
She believes that moms and dads don’t have to give up fine dining and art and culture; in fact, they should take their children along.
Joslyn and two like-minded, style-savvy mom friends — Sunny Logsdon and Christine Visneau — have launched a website to help other Dallas-area families find kid-friendly experiences in sometimes unexpected places. On tinydallas.com, readers can find dining tips (buttermilk pancakes at Oddfellows), art tips (Factory 2712), shopping tips (plenty of options in old downtown Carrollton) and more.
This week, I visited with Joslyn about the blog and her life as the mom of two young girls. Here are excerpts.
Why did you and your partners start Tiny Dallas?
There are lots of great resources out there, extensive guides. We wanted really highly edited, road-tested experiences in Dallas. From people with a similar philosophy.
What is that philosophy?
You can raise your kids where you’re taking them to museums and good restaurants. It doesn’t mean you check your intellect at the door. Marketers might have us believe that you’re doomed to a life of only Chuck E. Cheese or kid music.
You can take your child to the Dallas Museum of Art and go beyond Creative Connections. You can go to Bolsa, Park, Tillman’s Roadhouse and have a meal.
We think a lot of parents are intimidated by that. We wanted to give parents the tools to have those experiences.
What are some of the challenges of raising children in the Dallas area?
One of the other reasons we wanted to start this was that Dallas gets a bad rap. We’re all transplants. We’ve all fallen in love with the city. We wanted to share that as well.
On the surface, it’s harder because there aren’t as many swimming holes or giant parks as in Austin. But we see things every day that are exciting. A hard part is discovering what’s there.
What are some of the advantages of raising children here?
I think Dallas is an incredibly friendly town. We’re really friendly to children. It’s a very positive environment to raise families in.
We have the symphony, ballet, opera, museums, zoo, aquarium, arboretum. There are very few cities that have those things,
There isn’t a day we can’t think of something great to do with the kids. Instead it’s “Oh gosh, what are we going to have to miss today because there’s so much to do with them?”
And the weather is great, obviously.
Tell me one or two hidden-treasure kind of experiences in Dallas, experiences that more parents should know about.
Oak Cliff and Bishop Arts District are something not everyone has experienced. Get a burger at Hunky’s, enchiladas at Bee. There are some funky, colorful, kid-friendly places there. We love Oil and Cotton art studio there. It offers classes for adults and kids.
Studio Arts in Lake Highlands is an amazing art studio. You really feel like you’re inside a studio.
How do you encourage creativity with your children?
No. 1 way for me is we turn off the television. We get them outside as much as possible.
By providing lots of open-ended art supplies — tons of paper, pens, crayons, sticks, glue — and allowing them to go crazy with them.
By turning on music.
By bringing them to museums, letting them see stuff and process it.
Tyra Damm is a Briefing columnist. Email her at tyradamm@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment