Over the weekend we were talking to some friends about our bed time routines we have with our kids.
Like most parents, Shane and I have a whole routine down with our son. We start out with a bath, brush teeth, read story upon story upon story, sing a whole bunch of songs (church and non-church type songs), say our prayers, give out kisses and off to bed Mason goes! It's like we have mini FHE's every night. If we miss something, Mason is quick to remind us what we forgot, and if we are running late for bed, it's hard to convince him to only do ONE story, and ONE song.
After our explanation of our bedtime routine, our said friends said "You sing?... EVERY night? We NEVER sing! (husband shaking his head... No, NEVER!) I think the last time we all sang was around Christmas time, but there were way more people with us to help us carry a tune."
In my head I was GASPING! I couldn't help feeling sorry for them. So much of our days and nights in our house are consumed by little songs we sing as we go through our days. Primary songs, country songs, folk songs, Disney songs, we make up a song for brushing teeth, for saying I love you, or for what we are eating, and the list goes on and on. Our home is always filled with music. Mason loves it! And we love that he loves it. He often times gets songs stuck in his head and you can hear him singing them under his breath as he plays with his toys.
I don't think we can help ourselves. The song is in our head and before long we are belting it out as we bop around the house. We even have dances and jigs for certain songs. Are we the only weird ones? I seemed to think that most people's homes were similar to ours!
I found this quote from the first presidency at www.lds.org that pretty much sums up what our home is like on any given day.
“Teach your children to love the hymns. Sing them on the Sabbath, in Family home evening, during scripture study, at prayer time. Sing as you work, as you play, and as you travel together. Sing hymns as lullabies to build faith and testimony in your young ones”
I'm grateful that we have awesome leaders who teach these principles. I couldn't imagine our home with out songs and music. I think it would be a sad place. Music brings so much joy and love and happiness into our home.
These particular friends happened to be LDS, so I just casually urged them to start singing to their little ones and reminded them that they don't have to have fabulous voices to sing simple songs. They just have to have a song in their heart that will help them carry the tune. Hopefully they will start to sing! And for anyone else who is reading this who doesn't sing at home.. don't be afraid to start. I promise Simon Cowell wont be sitting in your kitchen chair judging your talents! And the worst that could happen is your kids will have a greater love and interest for good music.
1 comment:
Of course we sing. Actually just this morning I was wondering if maybe I sing too much -- I mean every activity can have a song accompany it! Ashlyn is singing now too and I love it! She sings songs I didn't know she knew. Some she must be learning in nursery. Anyway, sing on!
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