Monday, April 30, 2007

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them


Written by In The Trenches Of Mommyhood

When you become a mommy, the oh-so-cool rock anthems that kept you moving… “Pour some sugar on me”; “Roxxxx-annne”; “She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean”; “I love rock and roll, put anotha dime in the jukebox baby”; “Because the great-test love of all, is happening to meeeee”…Just kidding on that last one. Really! [Although I have to admit that I watched the Being Bobby Brown marathon on BravoTV while I was in the hospital after having my third son, and if that show wasn’t the epitome of a train wreck that you couldn’t tear yourself away from watching, then I don’t know what was. But I digress.]…suddenly morph into “We’re yourrrrr backyard friends, the Backyardigans”; “Backpack, backpack” and “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Streeeeet”.

So in the interest of saving my sanity (and to shield myself from EVER again having to listen to another Wiggles song), I figured, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, so I introduced my children to more, shall we say, tolerable (or so I thought) music, like Laurie Berkner, and even the Cars soundtrack (“Life is a highway, I’m gonna ride it allllll night long, yeah yeah yeah yeah”). Yeah, well, my boys’ latest musical discovery is the Blue Sky Sparklin’ Day CD by Elizabeth McMahon (a/k/a Mrs. McPuppet). Holy shit! This music is like crack for your ears. The little ditties STICK in your head all day and night. This week, I’ve found myself wandering aimlessly about the house, singing about “la la la la la la-sagne” and frickin’ hippos “who came all the way from Africa”.

MAKE IT STOP!! [As she curls up in the fetal position, rocking slowly back and forth, sucking her thumb to the strains of “C-O-W spells cow, N-O-W spells now, H-O-W spells how, how now brown cow, moo cow.”] I think it’s pretty safe to say, I’ve been beat. Badly.


In the Trenches of Mommyhood. I had a mind once. Now I have small children.

8 comments:

Amanda said...

I love your writing for the way it echoes my own thoughts and then gets sprinkled by your deft hand with morsels that make me say,"Damn, I wish I had typed that."

You rock, mama.

Anonymous said...

The Backyardigan theme gives me HIVES! We've gotten our kids into music like the Beatles, Cat Stevens, and John Denver. Lyrics are clean and we don't have to beat our heads against the wall or car window!

Not From Lapland said...

I guess I've got all this to come but it doesn't half make me glad that she is still too young to care.

Annie said...

Right there joining with you! How sad is it that I find myself jaunting along to 'The wheels on the bus' while en route to the grocery store, with no kids in the car?

Cherann said...

I guess it's better that our kids sing Laurie Berkner songs rather than Nine Inch Nail songs. But dang it when the backyardigans stick in my head all day.

Sprite said...

This cracked me up! What a great idea -- turn the on to something you like. But, I guess even that can backfire. LOL! I guess all things, even those things you like, need to be in moderation!

Anonymous said...

I am so glad my boys are now older and moving on to the "good" music.

Maude Lynn said...

"What's gonna work? Team work!" Ugh! That's the one that gets stuck in my head.

Featured Post and Blog of the Week



You Are Here

by Amie from
MammaLoves...


You did well in school to get into college. You tried to get by well enough in college to be attractive to an employer or graduate program, and along the way you may have opened your heart a time or two. Maybe you even found true love.

With a foot in the door, the first years of work were the time to
prove your mettle once again. Promotions, raises all with the goal to secure your future will allow you to settle down, buy a house, travel, commit to a relationship, have kids or not. In what feels like a blink of an eye, your future is here.

And now what?


Read the full post...

Chance Favors Only Those Who Court Her

by Debbie from Missives from Suburbia


After a less-than-friendly divorce, I was on the market again. Seizing the opportunity, my friends scoured their address books and Palm Pilots for single men and set me up on blind date after blind date. My reaction to most of those dates was, "I call these people my FRIENDS?" One of my real friends suggested Match.com, and given how much I love the Internet, I gave it a go.

A couple months of e-dating passed by in a blink. It was fun, but so far nothing meaningful had hit my radar, and my match inventory was starting to run low. You see, Match.com "matches" you to people based on a list of your requirements, and I'd pretty much run through all my existing matches who didn't seem psycho or stoned, based on their profiles.

Then, one day, I got an email from a guy who was not a match by my standards...

Read the full post...

A Lost Opportunity

by John from Altjiranga Mitjina


Trying to break in as a writer in the comic book industry can be a bit like the one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Every step forward you make means you land on your butt after your kick forward. Comic books are a visual medium. An artist can bring a portfolio to an editor at a convention and said editor can sit there and look at it within minutes and decide if this artist is worthy of working on the newest issue of Stupendous Man or not. Trying being a hopeful writer handing over a script to this same editor at a busy comic convention. You’ll be lucky if the editor agrees to take the script and promise that they’ll look at it later. Most times the hopeful writer is told to send for their submission guidelines and mail in their proposal.

The best way for a writer is to find an aspiring artist and hook up...

Read the full post...

Jesus Toothpaste!

by Karen Rayne from Adolescent Sexuality Today with Karen Rayne, Ph.D.


This weekend I went out of town, leaving my family to fend for themselves. On Saturday, my darling husband took my two darling daughters – 6 and 3 years old – to what he heard was a fun new toy store in town. Great, right?

They walk in the door, and the 6-year-old pipes up with “Look, Daddy! Jesus toothpaste!” He takes one look, puts one hand on each girl’s shoulder, and does a 180 out of the store. It may be a fun new toy store, but it’s intended clientele does not include the under-13 set.

When I got home on Sunday, the first thing the 6-year-old says to me was, “Guess what! We saw Jesus toothpaste!” I blinked, figuring I hadn’t heard her correctly. Regrettably, I had...

Read the full post...

A biker, a green thumb, a cracked hand, and a Queen.

by Megan from Velveteen Mind, originally guest posted at Queen of Spain


A random biker on a Harley-Davidson took my picture last week. What I wanted to do was take his picture, but I hesitated. Now, instead of a photo of some random biker holding an i am bossy.com bumper sticker, all I have is a lame photo of me holding the bumper sticker and the mental picture of him riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Okay, it wasn’t as romantic or dramatic as that. It was nine in the morning and there was no sunset.

This is not the first time that I have hesitated to seize an opportunity. I don’t expect it will be the last. However, I hope with each lost chance for something intriguing, I will lose a shade of that hesitation for next time...

Read the full post...