“Who does your Mom sing?”
An honest question asked by my 7 year old to a friend at school. The boy looked at him strange and replied, “nobody.” Ryan came home completely amazed.
“And…Mom! He doesn’t know who Steven Tyler is. Ozzy Osborne, Dimebag or even Kurt Cobain!” He couldn’t believe it.
I laughed and then began to think…how different are we? I grew up on a beautifully peaceful mixture of my Dad’s Beatles, Eagles and Queen and my Mom’s Aerosmith, AC/DC and Michael Jackson with a little bit of New Kids and Salt n Peppa thrown in the mix for fun. Music has always been my thing. And, it’s definitely a staple in our home.
My husband is a musician, and as I study more about Music Therapy and dive further into my Special Education studies, I have found a particular reassurance behind singing.
Who doesn’t sing to their kids though? Whether it’s their ABC’s, prayers or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, children and singing have long gone hand and hand. My generation Disney movies turned musicals hip with singing mermaids and genies. Today’s are computer animated and some almost completely silent!
I sing to my children when they wake up, when we clean, when we eat, when we drive, when they take a bath and most of all, when they go to sleep. I’ve sang many a Flyleaf song and Aerosmith daily. Nirvana is a favorite, Ozzy gets us hyped up. Even Eminem and Tech N9ne have a spot in our world (Who can forget the “Einstein” game the boys played when they were little!!!)…And I do throw a few Britney tunes in there for fun.
So, I gotta know, Moms, who do you sing?
I sing Beyonce, Kelis, Erykah Badu, Black Eyed Peas………etc
We sing everything!! One of my 3 year olds favorites is Scream by Avange Seven Fold and I feel Like a Monster by ?? Cant remember. My 6 year old is my punk rocker. He jams out to Sublime and Greenday and White Stripes with me. The little guy is more into metal and hard rock. He also loves women. He likes Amy (Evanescence) and Fly Leaf and Paramore. They like Lady Gaga too. She is one of our guilty pleasures 🙂
I’m more of a ‘savvy Auntie’ than anything else, but when my little’uns are sleepy, my standards are “Molly Malone”, “River Lullaby” from Prince of Egypt (love it!) and “Silent Night”. (at all times of the year, because it’s simply a lovely song.)
I’ve always had a muppet obsession so “The Rainbow Connection” was my #1 go to lullabye. I’ve always sang everything (doing dishes, going potty, simple instructions) We sing and dance to just about everything (Ramones-dio and everything in between). I love hearing my son rock out and sing to himself when he thinks he’s alone
Growing up, I was in a very musical household. All of us sang, and sang well. We were Catholic, and my mom, dad, and sisters were in choir. One of them would always sing me to sleep with this version of Hail Mary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USv12yPjikk&feature=related
I heard a lot of Ave Maria in our house. My oldest sister was a much-requested wedding singer and highschool choir soloist. When my sisters got home from school and mom was done cooking, someone would always be playing piano. Fur Elise, Heart and Soul… Mom knew every nursery song there was and sang them at any provocation. Music was a subject in our homeschool, too. We learned all the traditional songs and patriotic songs from every country in our bloodline, as well as most of the songs from every major musical before 1990.
Dad mostly made up silly songs for us. they were embarrassing at the time, but I miss them now.
Thanks to my family, I have an intense love of traditional Christmas songs. Singing them, not just hearing them played. (After working retail over Christmas, they are the ONLY Christmas songs I like, lol.)