Taking Miriam home from her ballet class, I plugged in the iPod and pressed play. What came on was Great Big Sea’s “Hit the Ground and Run” – a rollicking tune about a shotgun wedding (co-written by Russell Crowe – yes Russell Crowe, the actor.)
Miriam hears it and goes “Oh my gosh! I love this song!”
Now it’s one of those parenting moments where part of you cringes, because your 12 yr old shouldn’t be singing along to songs about shotgun weddings – and part of you goes “Awesome!” because it’s a great song. During these times I just remind myself that at age five, I was singing along to songs like “Hotel California” and I grew up to be a pretty decent human being.
Anyhoo…
Song is playing, and Miriam goes “Wait. The version you used to play in Michigan, didn’t it have a girl singing along in the chorus?”
Um…no…
“I remember a girl singing along with the harmony.”
Um…could that girl singer have been me? Like what I’m doing right now?
“ohhhhhhhh…..yeah, I guess it was.”
And then we both agreed, I should be allowed to sing back up for Great Big Sea.
Makes perfect sense.
PS – I just suddenly remembered, speaking of songs that may not be quite appropriate for children to be singing…
When I went to a preschool meeting for Maura, as she was starting preschool, it was the teacher, myself, and four or five other parents. The teacher was asking questions about our kids, and asked if they liked music.
Good parent #1 – “Oh, my child LOVES to sing their ABC’s – sings it all the time!”
Good parent #2 – “My child LOVES to sing “The Wheels on the Bus” – they know ALL 328 verses!”
Teacher turns to me. “Does Maura like music?”
Me – “Oh yes! Her favorite band is Great Big Sea, she loves their song “The Old Black Rum”…” me, realizing that maybe this isn’t an age-appropriate song as Good Parents eyes land on me….” they’re a Canadian folk band…” …backpeddling…”…it’s a traditional Irish song…” …big fat lie, it’s about getting completely pissed from drinking too much rum.
But it’s good craic, as they say here in Ireland. You can see why the girl likes the song so much – and can sing along a little bit with it now. Okay, she sings along with the shotgun wedding song too. But she did eventually learn the ABC song, as well as “Wheels on the Bus”. So I’m not that terrible of a mother…right?
