Mom Jongg: Moms, led by Jane Emely, Leslie Blair and Tracy Tetrick, have created a Mah Jongg company that helps women learn Mah Jongg and socialize

East moms Jane Emley, Leslie Blair, Tracy Tetrick and Sarah Eason gathered inside Eason’s porch with a stock of hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray ready to go every time they socialized during the COVID-19 lockdown. But not just to clean their hands or wipe the table.

They also needed to disinfect their Mah Jongg tiles between rounds.

“You know, it’s the game they play at the end of ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’” Emley said.

After Emley learned the niche, strategy tile game Mah Jongg from former East parent Sarah Clark, she knew she had to share it with her friends. Now, the group offers private lessons to Kansas City women through their Mah Jongg company, Mahj and More, that they started in November 2022. The four still meet at Indian Hills Country Club every Monday at 1 p.m. to play, however their conversations now are less about pandemic and more about business strategies.

“[Emley] and I were actually thinking of opening a clothing business, but then we kind of refocused and decided that our passion was really playing Mah Jongg,” Blair said. “It’s just a great social thing to do.”

By word-of-mouth, Mahj and More grew to include about eight to 10 groups of women that Emley, Blair and Tetrick teach. Emley tells the beginner-level moms that in order to play on their own without a teacher, they must take at least four, two-hour sessions — either held at a country club or a mom’s house — the first being devoted to the explanation of the game.

“When you were first learning to play, you’re concentrating pretty hard for a long time and it doesn’t get comfortable until you have played for [a while],” Emley said. “When you’re a beginner, you need to concentrate a lot.”

The ultimate object of the game is to pick, swap and discard the intricately designed tiles until you obtain a winning hand, called a Mah Jongg. These winning hands are changed every April when the National Mah Jongg League releases a new card with various winning plays that you can arrange the 14 playing tiles into.

After discussing strategies of how to obtain a Mah Jongg, the second session is when the moms can finally do what they signed up for — play the game. Over the third and fourth sessions, Mah AoJongg can finally reach its true potential as a “social activity.” One that can become the main event in Super Bowl brunches or decadent 50th birthday parties, according to Blair. 

“[Mah Jongg is] definitely a social game,” Emley said. “I always correlate it to my mother’s generation who played a lot of bridge. That was their socialization, which is how we [now] socialize while keeping our brains sharp and active.”

Along with offering classes, Mahj and More will start selling products such as bags to carry Mah Jongg tiles and the Mah Jongg money. They plan to set up their first pop-up stand at Milburn Country Club on Mar. 1.

“There’s tiles and there’s mats and there’s bags, and then people for birthday parties and special occasions are getting cups and napkins,” Blair said. “We [think these] products are really cute and we’d love to get in on the ground floor of that here in Kansas City.”

Although the moms hope to expand their business and launch a variety of products, Blair considers their main focus to teach as many women Mah Jongg as possible. 

“[Mah Jongg has] allowed me to meet people that I wouldn’t have normally met, either through playing or people referring to [me, Blair and Tetrick] as teachers,” Emley said.