I was at the park today with the little ones, pushing them on the swings and listening to music on max volume outta my phone because I was in the mood for some older tunes.
No one else was at the park but the three of us.
It’s rare that I listen to music when I’m outside so I didn’t have any head phones with me. I just went back to an old work playlist, put it on random, and listened to it blare out of my pocket.
Tunes from Blackhawk, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Britney Spears, Travis Tritt, Phil Collins, Backstreet Boys, Jon Secada, Roxette, The Traveling Wilburys, Dire Straits, and Restless Hearts, among others, all firing off on random play mode as I pushed Harrison and Mara back and forth on the swings.
Then, of course, the minute a 50-60 year old white male walking his dainty little dog is looming in the distance, on a collision course to walk by us, an old favorite song of mine called ‘Da Rockwilder’ by Method Man and Redman pops up on the playlist.
One of only three or four rap songs on that playlist featuring hundreds of others. (I have a bunch of Tupac songs I like to play from time to time but all his music is on a separate list.)
The minute I hit shuffle I decided I wasn’t going to turn my music down or change any songs that randomly came on. Once you dig into your pocket to bypass a song just one time it opens up the flood gates to do it every other song or two. I wasn’t going to open up those floodgates…the distraction takes too much time away from the kids. If there’s one thing I hate seeing it’s a little kid tugging at his or her parent’s coattails while mom or dad stare down at their phones unfazed.
So the older guy walks by and every time I put an eye on him he’s looking over at me, clearly disgusted with the sounds coming out of my pocket.
I’m sure he thought I’d been there for hours subjecting my two young kids to foul-mouth hip-hop music that has no place in society, and I desperately needed more structure, discipline, and scripture in my life from his imaginary friend and the good book, for exposing my kids to that. Meanwhile, my kids were so busy yelling and laughing the whole time I’m sure neither of them even noticed I was playing music of any kind.
I smiled at the irony.
Speaking of which, before I left with the two kiddos this morning…after waking up early with them. Hanging out and playing around till 8 or so on the couch with them. Making them breakfast. Dressing them up. And packing a bag to go to the park—about a half a mile away from the house—with them on their bikes…my mother-in-law decides to stop me and say “Hey Jordan, I don’t know if you wanna take them out there today, it looks like its gonna rain to me,” as I’m on my way out the door.
Oooooooooooh.
Thanks.
I’ll take my chances.
The first day in I can’t remember how long she decided to get out of bed and go outside for something other than getting a ride to a doctor’s appointment…She took a walk with Chloe this morning…
And now she’s a meteorologist.
Yeah, I check the weather every single day to determine if, when, and how long I take my kids outside. It’s the first thing I look at.
Also a little mist doesn’t scare me. Also, while I’m on the subject Gram, 100 is not too hot and 50 is not too cold. There are adjustments you can make depending on the variance that comes with outside conditions.
Just some food for thought.
And of course we stayed outside all morning, 9:30 to noon, and it didn’t rain. Partly cloudy the whole time.
She just had to let it be known that she actually went outside today, and that was her little way of sharing that.
I can’t wait till the next time we’re sitting in the house and it starts raining. Those kids are gonna have so much fun outside in front of the house splashing around in puddles in their boots.
This is the type of petty shit that seems to run thru through my head on a daily basis. Figured I’d take the lid off and start writing about some of this stuff.
