Growing up MOD, Kyran Pittman

Editor's Note: We are thrilled to welcome author Kyran Pittman to the MOD VOICES series!

Shocking true confession: I did not always love Little Rock. In fact, if you had told me back in 1996, the year I arrived here, that I would be still living in Little Rock in 2010, I would have replied with something entirely unsuitable for a family-oriented website.


A visit to the Museum of Discovery recently had me thinking what a long way we've both come since then, this town and I. The development of the River Market district got underway shortly after I moved here, transforming what was once a weekend ghost town into a thriving downtown. And I had three kids, which radically shifted my idea of a good time. We've kind of grown up together.


I've come to think of Little Rock as a "big small town," and that's what makes it so terrific for kids. It's small and homey enough that we bump into friends and neighbors nearly everywhere we go. And it's is big enough to have a surprisingly decent array of family-friendly attractions. The MOD is one of the best of them, and it's been fun to watch it expand and grow as fast as my own children have. I passed the former toddler room by the main entrance with a smile, remembering the days I'd sit there, rocking an infant to sleep while my two-year-old played, so grateful to escape the laundry and while away an afternoon in a bright cheery space. It's hard to believe those were the same two children who are now perfectly capable of roaming the museum on their own, while their youngest brother and I peruse the exhibits at a first grader's pace. The MOD is great at accommodating different ages and stages, and it maintains a good mix of new exhibits and familiar favorites. And this germ-phobe mom really appreciates that the exhibits are kept CLEAN (and in good working order), not always the case in a "hands-on" museum. Or in my own home, for that matter. So, kudos, MOD. I'm glad we've both hung around.


Kyran Pittman is a mother of three boys, and a writer of magazine articles, blogs and a book. Her online journal is http://www.notestoself.us/. Her book, Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life will be published by Riverhead next spring.