The Parenting Panel with Jane Jensen
1. How many children do you have? And what are their ages?
I have two children. My daughter is 13 and my son is 16.
2. Did you have fears or concerns about how becoming a parent would interfere with your artistic endeavors?
I wasn’t too concerned that parenting would interfere with my artistic endeavors. I figured if J.K Rowling could write the Harry Potter series at a cafe while her baby was napping in a stroller, I could surely manage to carry on in my music career. It didn’t play out that way for me at all. Aside from the demand of time that caring for young children requires, I found that things about me changed drastically. I wanted to make music but I had no desire to be in a nightclub. I didn’t want to go out and play in front of a crowd anymore, in fact, suddenly I just didn’t feel comfortable being the center of attention in any way. I wanted to be home in the evening to put my kids to bed - and then put myself to bed.
3. In what ways has parenthood helped your creativity, if any?
My kids are always inspiring my creativity. They show up in a lot of my songs. When my kids were very young I made a lot of music with them. I wrote kid songs and I started teaching preschool music classes, teaching kid workshops on the weekends and doing kid concerts - I called it the PBJ tour. Those were really fun days. I wrote and recorded an album called My Rockabye about getting married, becoming a mom and doing the day to day domestic shuffle. When the album was finished, I was just too damn exhausted to promote it. I took a long break after that. I found that I just couldn’t split my focus - and be a mom and an active musician at the same time. The outgoing artist side of me was going to have to wait and I wasn’t sure that I would be getting that part of me back again any time soon. My creativity came out in other ways; writing poetry, drawing, playing my acoustic guitar just for fun - quiet things. BUT to answer your question “how has parenting helped my creativity?” I would say it has helped in this way- once you become a parent - you become the ultimate BOSS, CEO and CURATOR of the whole domestic realm. It’s amazing. You get the sense of what it feels like to be so entirely crucial to another’s well-being. You get to connect to the magic of their discovery of everything - first snow, Halloween, holiday traditions. And as a parent - you get to curate and direct all of this stuff and it is so fun. Parenting is creative on many levels and can feel empowering. The downside is just always being tired AF and usually too busy to work on your personal creative projects. I do feel that my confidence and boss mentality have become highly developed though parenting and that translates to other areas of my life.
4. How do you juggle your family and your career? Who’s your support system?
Parenting has taught me a lot about my own creative process. Before I had children to care for, I took for granted the value of being able to focus or create for a sustained period of time without being interrupted. I realized that I just don’t work well in short spurts. My creative process involves getting into a zone and really staying there and going deep. It was too frustrating for me to work on music production for an hour while the babies were napping, and then stop and try to get back into it in the evening. The whole time knowing you know, the dishes, laundry etc. etc. The creative process was not working for me like that. I became very aware of what my needs were to have an effective creative process and I became very aware those needs were not going to be met any time soon.
5. Has the pandemic taken away or added to your creative flow? Are you taking good care of yourself these days?
The pandemic has been good for my creative flow. My kids are teens now so I have the time and freedom to get into my creative process. I recorded an alternative meditation and mantra album during the pandemic called Enchant (just released March 19th) I created this music to help me with my own meditation practice and mindfulness development. It’s a musical approach to meditation that involves chanting, if you like or just listening. It’s helped me cope during the pandemic and stay more focused on wellness or at least - it helps me get back on track when I miss the mark.
6. What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before you became a parent? Any advice for others?
Advice that I would give to “soon to be parents” would be to try not to judge yourself too harshly, embrace your imperfection and your kids’ imperfections as divine perfection. Also, they really do grow up fast.