When Spinky was little and I commuted for an hour each way to work I would have to sing the entire time. I am a terrible terrible singer, truly. I like singing, but for an hour constantly without a break is not okay. It was completely exhausting. If I paused to even drink he would start wailing so loudly that I swear other cars on the highway could hear him. For months he was stuck on Sharon, Lois, and Bram's Elephant Song (aka Skinamarink). Nothing else would do. I tried letting him listen to the tape (yes, I'm a technosurf, thank you very much!) but that didn't work. I tried taping myself singing and asked a tech-head to loop it, but that didn't work either. He always knew.
I eventually started to hate that song and even after he moved onto something else hearing it come up on the iPod's random list would give me the shakes, some sort of ptsd I think. Domba's never even heard it. I just looked it up on Youtube and it's a lovely song but I just don't think I can sing it again quite yet. The other songs on the album I have (Elephant Show Record
) are great fun though, hope I get over this soon.So in the car we didn't listen to that song at all, but we stayed with the safer Dora the Explorer Party Favorites
and some Raffi of course (Singable Songs Collection
). My kids love soccer fan songs, and 2-year-old Domba can sing with the best of them. So it's hard to compete using English songs. I'm sorry but "You'll Never Walk Alone" would put anyone to sleep! Down By the Bay and Wheels on The Bus give me a fighting chance though!I seem to have stopped listening to adult music when they are around. Maybe because most of my mix CDs have some songs that I don't want to hear from my kids' mouth, like Right Said Fred's only hit and almost anything from George Michael or Samantha Fox. I guess I'll have to start making some new mixies, because I can't let my kids get too much bigger without knowing the pure pleasure of singing My Sharona or Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of your lungs in an enclosed space.
What do you listen to in the car?
hi jen, just want to say hello and thanks for commenting on my blog...i'll definitely be stopping by again to see how you are doing with the bilingual adventure...i'm traveling the same road ;-)
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