Oh the Things Mommies Do!

Overview

Oh the Things Mommies Do! is a 2009 picture book by Crystal Tompkins, illustrated by Lindsey Evans. Public bookseller and Open Library records identify the title, date, ISBN, and creator-published imprint; the local record adds the interpretive detail that the book shows several two-mother couples caring for children in everyday settings. Its importance is not a single dramatic plot. It belongs to a late-2000s group of books that made same-sex-parent families visible through ordinary routines: shoes tied, hands held, school mornings, blanket castles, and repeated rhymes about having two mothers.^[1][2][3][4]

Everyday Care As Structure

The local record describes a book organized around ordinary care: tying shoes, holding a child's hand on the first day of school, and building a blanket castle in the living room. That emphasis places the title beside other books where same-sex-parent representation comes through routine rather than conflict. The repeated domestic actions become the argument. Two mothers are shown as caregivers, companions, teachers, and participants in daily childhood.^[1][3][4]

Rhyming Visibility Literature

A 2017 Bank Street College occasional paper names Oh, The Things Mommies Do! among LGBTQ tolerance and visibility books. That scholarly context is useful because it describes the genre rather than simply listing the title. The book's title and refrain make the family structure explicit, while the scenes present daily life as familiar. This approach differs from books that explain law, reproduction, or adoption in detail.^[4][5][6]

Several Two-Mother Families

The collection note says the book portrays a number of mommy couples rather than one named family. That feature gives the record a distinct place in the collection. It treats two-mother family life as a repeated social form, with some mixed-race couples, rather than a single exceptional household. The visual sequence can therefore support comparison with alphabet, counting, and many-family books that use accumulation as their representational method.^[1][7][5]

Creator-Published Context

The bibliographic trail points to a small creator-published pathway. Open Library records the imprint as Oh The Things Mommies Do, and AllBookstores gives a June 2009 publication date, ISBN, price, page count, and description. This kind of evidence is modest but valuable. It marks a period when families and individual creators could issue targeted picture books through small distribution channels before larger publishers routinely carried comparable titles.^[2][3][8]

Timeline

1. 2009PublicationOpen Library and bookseller records date Oh the Things Mommies Do! to 2009.^[2][3]
2. 2010sEducational list circulationSchool and multicultural book lists included the title among LGBTQ and family-diversity picture books.^[5][6]
3. 2017Scholarly visibility contextA Bank Street College occasional paper named the title in a discussion of LGBTQ visibility literature.^[4]

Domestic-Care Picture Books

Related records use everyday care, repeated actions, and family routines to present same-sex-parent households.

Citation

Oh the Things Mommies Do!. Crystal Tompkins; illustrated by Lindsey Evans. Oh The Things Mommies Do, 2009. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-092.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for Oh the Things Mommies Do! · catalog
2. Open Library ISBN record for Oh the Things Mommies Do! · library
3. AllBookstores record for Oh The Things Mommies Do! · bookseller
4. Queering Education occasional paper, Bank Street College of Education · scholarship
5. Gender and Sexual Diversity book list · education
6. SUNY Cortland multicultural children's books list · education
7. Checklist of Children's Books Featuring LGBT Family Members · bibliography
8. PR.com release for Gaybe Center LGBT Parent Community · press
9. Wikipedia page for Oh the Things Mommies Do! · reference
10. Open Library cover image for Oh the Things Mommies Do! · image