Create Your Family Soundtrack
Different times in our lives have different soundtracks, like the summer I lived in the country so I played a Patsy Cline cassette over and over again in the tape deck of my car until it melted in the heat, or my freshman year of college when I played U2’s “With or Without You” on repeat because I was moody and homesick.
These days have their own soundtrack too, and I wonder which songs will cause me to look back and think about the times my kids danced in the living room, twirling, clapping, and wiggling everything they had.
There are days when my home is filled with squabbles, cries, and even crashes that result in more cries and sounds of adult feet that come running. Yells of “I want the toy he’s playing with!” and “Is it movie time?” followed by relentless, “Is it movie time yet?”
At times when I can’t hear myself think and the silence I seek is near to impossible, I do the opposite: I turn on the music and add to the sound. We can hear a song, turn it up, get excited and start dancing.
Music draws us together and makes things better.
It’s the reason why new parents make up songs in desperation to appease crying babies. That’s how the mermaid song and the bathtub song both came into existence for my kid who hates getting her hair wet.
I guess I thought children’s songs would all be about the alphabet, and I wondered how many times I could possibly listen to “I’m the MAP!!” before I finally started looking for songs that we all enjoyed listening to. The songs we now listen to all the time have helped us to create our own family soundtrack.
“Sing the tricycle song, Mommy!” She’s talking about “Tricycle” by Frances England, and she wants to hear it every time she goes pedaling on her trike, wearing her big helmet on her head over her tiny body as she tries to steer to avoid crashing into walls.
Car songs are usually about Christmas, even in July. We all sing the song “Happy Holidays” even though we only sing the chorus and none of us know the words to the verses.
Cleaning time is a drudgery until we crank up Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” and everyone runs around for the next five minutes to put things away.
And at night my husband (who usually doesn’t like to sing) will still hum “Amazing Grace” as he walks around with each child before putting them into bed, and finally everything starts to settle down.
What songs are part of your family soundtrack?
