I feel like I’m doing this parenting lark right at the moment. On Saturday I had a great conversation with the ten year old about music. He told me the day before he had a conversation with a bunch of girls in his class about what they liked to listen to in terms of music. He said he was disappointed that they all seemed to like rude rap music (I think it’s probably grime, I could be wrong though) and not one of them had even heard of Fleetwood Mac, yet alone listened to Rumours (one of his favourite songs is the Chain), or the Scott Pilgrim Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, or the Eurythmics. He sadly shook his head and told me that they all had rubbish taste in music.
I mean, when we saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol:2, how many 10 year olds were able to say, wow! my favourite song is in that movie? Much like we did with food from an early age, we’ve exposed the kids to a wide variety of music, especially on long car journeys. When the boy was tiny he didn’t get jingly jangly kids CDs played to get him off to sleep, he got the Best of Simon & Garfunkel or Cat Steven’s Greatest Hits (sometimes he got Crowded House or The Cosmic Roughriders but those two were the mainstays). Much like he was eating curries, risottos and a multitude of pasta dishes when his mates were still scoffing nuggets and oven chips every day, I think exposing him to a broad range of music from a very early age* has been beneficial. He has his grade 1 drumming exam later this month, is learning the electric guitar too and likes to listen to music as much as having the telly on. It’s all good eh?
*due to an oversight on my part, the shuffle on the MP3 player in the delivery suite meant Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction was actually playing as he was born.