Claire Olshan’s “Witching Hour” Trick Might Bring Your Family a Much-Needed Moment of Peace
The creative director’s philosophy on finding beauty in the wake of horror and her morning storytime “helper” are also worth copying.
Even the best-behaved children are susceptible to the “witching hour,” the early evening window when everybody’s a little tired and a little hungry—when kids are most likely to be bouncing off the walls and running with scissors as their parents are trying to answer a few last work emails while simultaneously figuring out what’s for dinner.
While many parents might be inclined to yell their way through the witching hour—and we wouldn’t blame them—Claire Olshan, the co-founder and creative director of The Drawing Room and a mom of two, discovered a way to ground her family when life felt most hectic. “After I’ve spent the day in New York, working, when the kids are running around the house, what I do is, I take a book and sit on the floor and read it out loud, kind of loudly,” she says.
She doesn’t call to her 6-year-old son or 3-year-old daughter, but hearing a story calls them in. “I find that my kids end up right next to me,” she says. “That’s my way of settling myself and then settling my children.”
Currently in heavy rotation: The Stillwater books, a picture-book series that features a giant panda who tells enlightening Zen master stories. “They’re just SO good.”
Below, Claire shares the routines that preserve her sanity, her “life-changing” hair tool—and why she’d rather have a pen and a notebook than a bunch of apps.
GODMOTHERS: You studied fine arts in college, but not design, specifically. How did you end up becoming a creative director?
C.O.: I loved artists—where they came from, their anguish and their feelings, and their emotional ties to their art. I eventually opened a store, Fivestory, because I loved fashion in the same way—I loved meeting the designers and talking about where their collections came from. Then I started a lifestyle company called DADA, which was based on the Dada art movement, which made no sense; it was never supposed to make sense. I named my brand DADA in order to allow preposterous ideas to be free. But in doing that, I realized that my happiest moments were when the brand was exploding with creativity—during a photo shoot or creating mailers and fonts. It was less about the products we were selling and more about the creativity that revolved around the products. And so I realized, “Wow, I don’t want to sell things. I want to sell ideas and visions.”
GODMOTHERS: The Drawing Room did all of Godmothers beautiful branding—from our brand color palette to the barn illustrations. What are other projects you’ve loved working on?
C.O.: Chez Margaux, a members club in New York City, that just opened. I started The Drawing Room because I found that “branding” was always about “marketing” and “the masses.” I couldn’t find an intimate, quiet version of branding that was kind of the opposite—where it shut out the whole world and just allowed itself to be this unique and unifying visual language.
GODMOTHERS: Are you a person who reads a lot?
C.O.: I don’t read nearly enough. I don’t have time to read Monday through Friday, so I would say I’m a weekend reader and a vacation reader. But I probably buy 10 books a month and I get so freaking excited when someone tells me about a book, I’ll buy it at the dinner table. I buy books constantly because of the yearning to learn more.
GODMOTHERS: Fiction or nonfiction?
C.O.: Both, but over the last six months, nonfiction. I’ve been doing a lot of spiritual reading—a lot of esoteric titles.
GODMOTHERS: What’s one that stands out?
C.O.: Positivity Bias, which is about a rabbi who kind of took the country by storm. He advised U.S. presidents—from Kennedy to Carter—but he also held open-to-the-public weekly meetings in Crown Heights where people would stand in line for hours and he would hand each of them a dollar bill to donate to the charity of their choice. Naomi Campbell waited in the line at the height of her modeling career; he was a little bit of an oracle. So that, and another book about him called Rebbe that’s really amazing. I also just read Trust—the first fiction I’ve read in a long time—which I really liked. And I started Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point, last night.
GODMOTHERS: What does your morning routine look like?
C.O.: Well, my kids wake up between 5:30 and 6, and I’m not in the mood to read then, but we do have Yoto, which is a screen-free audio player that reads stories. The stories are on “cards” and there are a million of them, so your kid can decide if he wants to hear Spider-Man or if he wants to learn about the sun. I bought a case for all the cards, kind of like the CD books we all used to have. I actually love organization.
GODMOTHERS: Big same.
C.O.: So when my kids are up, we’ll all lie together and listen to stories. The other cool thing about the Yoto player is it has a morning “radio,” so you click a button and someone else can be very cheery with your kids and talk them through the morning, which is fun. I’ll eventually get up and make my kids breakfast, which is green juice, because they don’t eat vegetables. They both have to be on a bus at 7:45. Once I get them down, three days a week I do 75 minutes of Bikram, which is really hot yoga, and then start my day.
GODMOTHERS: How do you get your news?
C.O.: I’m a Wall Street Journal person. So I’ll open the Wall Street Journal app, and the Apple News app on my phone kind of knows me at this point, so I’ll scroll through that on my way to work. And then, sadly, Instagram is probably my third source of news.
GODMOTHERS: “Instagram” is probably the most common answer. Don’t feel bad. Are there any other apps you use a lot?
C.O.: I have the Oura Ring so that app is probably it. I don’t like getting addicted to things. I carry a notebook and a pen, and that works for me. My team, on the other hand, is on ALL the apps—Monday, Slack. And they’ll be like, “Did you see the thing on Slack?” And I’m like, “No? Can you just say it to me?”
GODMOTHERS: What are three songs that always put you in a good mood?
C.O.: “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. “Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes” by Paul Simon. “Monday, Tuesday” by Dalida. And then some very new-age things.
GODMOTHERS: What are five little things that make your day more enjoyable? Nothing crazy, but, like, a pen you love …
C.O.: No, I get it. The pure joy you get because something exists in the world.
GODMOTHERS: Exactly.
C.O.: So Attersee makes the most straightforward clothing in the world. Every time I put on their clothing, I’m like, “Thank God this exists in the world.” It’s just the easiest. I don’t have to think about what I’m wearing—it all just feels so good. It’s the same with Flore Flore T-shirts, I probably have 50 of those. Also, Santa Maria Novella’s Tabacco Toscano fragrance. It’s counterintuitive to think you’d want to smell tobacco, but I just love to walk into my house and smell it. I have the hand soap, and it makes me want to wash my hands again.
GODMOTHERS: Martyn Lawrence Bullard is also a fan of Santa Maria Novella, so you’re in good company. What else?
C.O.: Well this is really decadent, but there’s a caviar brand, CY Kitchen. Another food brand is Laroot, which is a meal-delivery service. Every bite you take of their food feels like you’re being smothered by your grandma’s hugs and cashmere and exoticism. It’s foods from all over the world, but presented in a very palatable way. They also have a Healing Bundle, which is all broths. So two days ago, I wasn’t sick but I wasn't feeling great, so I got their broths and drank them all day and just felt better. Oh, and Merit Beauty. A lot of their products are like crayons, so if I want to wear makeup my daughter can basically do it for me and I look glowy and beautiful. Also, I’m obsessed with my Dyson Airwrap. I have very crazy hair, and I’m not joking, it’s life-changing.
GODMOTHERS: You’re preaching to the choir. It is THE BEST hair tool.
C.O.: Yes! It makes it, like, fun and exciting to do your hair.
GODMOTHERS: What’s your go-to thank-you gift?
C.O.: Rebecca de Ravenel makes “candle lighters” which are giant tassels—like, two feet long—with huge beads; they have a little pocket for a Bic lighter. They’re amazing gifts.
GODMOTHERS: Do you have any spiritual practices?
C.O.: I do an open-eye meditation, which I studied with a zazen practitioner, for 10 to 15 minutes. I also try to walk for at least 10 minutes a day with no phone and no music. And I study a lot of Torah, which is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. But I don’t study it in a religious way; it’s more about spiritual guidance.
GODMOTHERS: When did you start that?
C.O.: After the October 7 attacks on Israel. That day made a lot of people ask themselves, “What does it mean to be Jewish?” And for me, I was never going to get more religious, but I did find that studying Torah with really, really smart people was a massive spiritual practice. I walk out of that room smarter, and as a better person, friend, wife, and mother.
GODMOTHERS: Did you join an existing group? Or was it something that was formed as a result of October 7?
C.O.: I actually found the teachers. I built my own groups of people who wanted spirituality in their lives—and there are a lot of people who aren’t Jewish in them. It’s 100 percent about the spirit. I grew up in a Jewish community, but I never felt spiritually settled in or connected until now.
GODMOTHERS: It’s amazing that you found something really beautiful in the wake of such horror.
C.O.: If we don’t create light from darkness, what are we doing?
GODMOTHERS: A prescient question. How do you get yourself out of a funk?
C.O.: I really lean into the practices I’ve been talking about. You know, you can’t only meditate when you’re in the mood to meditate. You can’t only go for walks when the weather is really nice. Often if I’m in a funk, it’s because I haven’t been respecting my time and my practices, and I know that getting back to them, even when I feel terrible, or my kids are driving me crazy—especially at those times—will get me back to myself. My mom always said to my dad, “Just fucking smile enough, and I swear to God, you’ll be happy.” And I remember that, always.
GODMOTHERS: Is there a charity that’s particularly important to you in the moment?
C.O.: ReGrow Israel is focused on helping Israel rebuild and rehabilitate the farming communities that were devastated on October 7. There’s a lot of physical and mental healing that still needs to happen there, but restoring Israel’s agriculture—which will help restore the country’s food security—is incredibly important, too.
GODMOTHERS: So you know that Godmothers was named with fairy godmothers in mind. Not “godmothers“ in the religious sense, but the women who cheer us on, celebrate us, and light us up. Is there a “godmother“ who shaped your life?
C.O.: So one of my favorite books of all time is The Red Tent. It’s a work of fiction that tells the story of Dinah—one of the silent female characters in Genesis, in the Bible—and references menstruating women being “banished” to a tent, but really it speaks to the magic and power of true female connection. So one of my group chats is called The Red Tent. It’s six women, and we made a pact that we’ll never have fluff conversations—and if we’re sitting in one, if someone’s gossiping, we shut it off. We try to make each other better. It’s very special.
GODMOTHERS: Are these old friends or new friends or …
C.O.: There’s one I went to high school with, one I met through my daughter’s nursery school, just people I know from different parts of my life.
GODMOTHERS: You have a knack for creating beautiful things and pulling together beautiful objects and curating beautiful physical spaces, but you also curated this spiritually beautiful little group of disparate people. You like beautiful things.
C.O.: I like beautiful things.
1. Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth.
2. Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth.
3. Zen Happiness by Jon J. Muth.
4. Stillwater and Koo Save the World by Jon J. Muth.
5. Positivity Bias by Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson.
6. Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History by Joseph Telushkin.
7. Trust by Hernan Diaz.
8. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
9. Yoto Mini.
10. Yoto Card Case.
11. Flore Flore Car Tee.
12. Santa Maria Novella Tabacco Toscano Liquid Soap.
13. The CYK Caviar Gift.
14. Laroot The Healing Bundle.
15. Merit Flush Balm.
16. Dyson Airwrap.
17. ReGrow Israel.
18. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.
Quotes have been edited for length & clarity. All products mentioned were independently selected. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Godmothers Gather: Upcoming Events
1 p.m. | Sunday, November 10
Workshop: Kate Kilmurray
Foundations of Handweaving
6 p.m. | Tuesday, November 12
On the Stage: Melissa Broder
Presenting Death Valley
6 p.m. | Wednesday, November 13
In Conversation: Bruce Wagner & Victoria Jackson
Presenting The Met Gala and Tales of Saints & Seekers
6 p.m. | Thursday, November 14
In Conversation: Lauren Sánchez & Jennifer Rudolph Walsh
Presenting The Fly Who Flew to Space
6 p.m. | Friday, November 15
On the Stage: Heidi Smith
Presenting The Uncommon Book of Prayer
11 a.m. | Saturday, November 16
Storytime: Roda Ahmed
Presenting Etta Extraordinaire Goes to the White House
6 p.m. | Saturday, November 16
In Conversation: Richard Christiansen & Elise Loehnen
Presenting Flamingo Estate: The Guide to Becoming Alive
6 p.m. | Tuesday, November 19
In Conversation: Andrew Davis & Joe Medjuck
Presenting Disturbing the Bones
6 p.m. | Wednesday, November 20
On the Stage: Michael Idov
Presenting The Collaborators
6 p.m. | Thursday, November 21
In Conversation: Susan Minot & Jennifer Rudolph Walsh
Presenting Don’t Be a Stranger
6 p.m. | Friday, November 22
In Conversation: Josh Brolin & Rob Lowe
Presenting From Under the Truck
11 a.m. | Saturday, November 23
Storytime: Mike Bender
Presenting The Bravest Booger
1 p.m. | Sunday, November 24
Workshop: Kathy Leader
Abstract Painting
11 a.m. | Saturday, November 30
Storytime: Patrice Karst
Presenting The Invisible String Backpack