O.K. There are some things that you have to do as a parent. You need to feed and clothe and bathe your kids. You have to provide them with shelter and protect them and keep them safe and all that good stuff. And, as we are learning, you have to do a ton to help out with their education…
But, those aren’t the only requirements. After all, just being an adult who is fed and has a home does *not* a good person make.
One of the first ways that we knew that our boys were our boys was hearing our sense of humor mimicked back to us.
At only 2 & 3 they were already learning about pranks and sarcasm and all of that humor that has kept us from killing each other after all of these years.
So, obviously, I think that teaching a kid how to laugh is important… Humor, seriously (pun intended!) is what allowed us to succeed in the crazy world that is foster parenting….
Humor isn’t the only escape that we used though… Daddy, more than I, is a huge movie buff. When we went from 3 kids to 4 (and then from 4 to 5 to 4 to 5 to 4 to 6 and finally back to 4) we realized that we needed help and time. We made a huge effort to have a date night every.single.week. Now, some of those dates ended early so we could sleep. But, movies were an escape for us. A chance to not think about the laundry and work and chaos of daily life.
Teaching the kids our love of the cinema has been about the easiest thing ever. Although, I have to say that their taste leaves something to be desired. Then again, I am a sucker for a romantic comedy… Not just the good ones either, I’ll pretty much watch anything that’s romantic and remotely funny.
The real thought that sparked this post—just like in real life, on my blog, my thoughts wander, too–was music.
When B and I met, I remember him looking at my CD collection (kids, CD’s were what we used before iPods existed) and approving me based on my taste in music. One of my favorite things in the world is a road trip and I love them because they give you hours in a car with music and conversation… What could be better?
We have wanted to pass a passions for music onto our kids as well. But, it’s a challenge… So many songs have questionable (to put it lightly) lyrics. There was a song that was popular when D & D were little called “Smack That”. We convinced them the real lyrics were “Snack Pack” and then started changing what was on the car… One easy solution is country music… The lyrics, most of the time, aren’t as risqué. But, I don’t think that B has ever willingly listened to country without me in the car. So, I remember thinking about oldies. I wanted the kids to listen to the oldies that I did when I was a kid.
But, those oldies are all but gone. They aren’t on the radio anymore… So, we sought them out. Bean’s favorite song used to be “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and all of the kids love the song “Lollipop”. Thanks to the movies, the kids not only love Abba songs, but they can identify the band!
It’s a little more work, but I think it’s worth it to expose the kids to different music. They still love new stuff… And we hear those questionable lyrics still… Nothing quite like hearing your little girl sing, “brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack”… But, I think we’re at least creating a little bit of balance.
Perhaps the band who the kids have had the most exposure to is the Beatles. Big D is far too shy to sing it in front of anyone, but he can sing “Black Birds” very well. All of the kids have been singing “Yellow Submarine” non-stop the last couple of days… And last night the Beatles, in a way, were the big boys’ first concert experience.
Daddy took the boys to see The Fab Faux. Now, I have blogged about this band before.. They copy, to perfection, the recorded sound of the Beatles. And last night was Daddy’s 6th time seeing them. Tonight will be my 3rd. And I will tell you that all of the boys were very happy about last night’s show. I am sure I will feel the same way in a few hours!
And, if you spin things the way I do, we get good parenting points for the exposure!
Hope you all are having a great long weekend!
And, if you get the chance… Check out this site: http://www.thefabfaux.com/wap/
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