Music to my ears

Published on 2 July 2024 at 11:13

As a parent, you put your kids' happiness above all things. You do this because you love them and want them to be happy, of course, but also at some point during the early years, you mainly do it because them being happy makes your life so much easier.

At some stage around the 2 and a half year mark, tantrums will become your life’s soundtrack, and whoever has tried it, knows how difficult it is to win an argument or reason with a toddler. It surely has to be up there on the list of toughest Olympic Sports. So, it suits you to keep that little dictator happy, for your own sanity.

From the second that tiny baby arrives into your arms, you want to do everything in your power to keep a smile on that face.

While doing this, it’s easy to forget what makes YOU happy, you may even forget those silly little things you liked to do before.

For example, I have always loved listening to music in the car, really it-could-make-me-deaf kind of loud, and it wasn’t until the twins were over 3 that I remembered about this.

I’m always busy, going here and there, doing this and that, and even when I’m not moving, my mind is busy, thinking about what I need to do, where we need to go, what I need to get, what we need to schedule or plan for. It’s non-stop.

Driving became more frequent once the twins arrived, too, but also chaotic. During the baby stage, they would either cry or sleep in the car, so the trips were either filled with loud double-cries, or absolute silence so that they would stay asleep.

Then, the toddler stage came along with a whole new level of difficulty. They would scream and try to get out of the straps (which they learned fairly quickly). As early talkers, they spoke quite fluently so there were constant fights (“Don’t look out my window”, “Don’t put your foot there”, “Stop looking at me!”). As every hopeful parent, I tried bringing things into the car for entertainment (toys, books, teddies, you name it). This didn’t help either as they would constantly drop them and scream for me to pick them up – with so little understanding that, as the driver, I had to focus on not getting us killed on the road.

And I thought that was as bad as it gets but then you take away the nappy and the toilet emergencies enter the room.

I often think if the Government was ever trying to get information out of a professional trained spy, they could put them in a car ride with my twins and they could crack in under half an hour just to get out.

That’s only the car ride itself, too, I didn’t even say anything about the process to get in and out. Those few seconds from when you have them both strapped in to when you walk to your own seat feel like a mini vacation.

So, understandably, the handful of times I drove by myself in the last (almost) 4 years, I didn’t even remember that my car had a radio that played anything other than Cocomelon. And even if I did, the silent car ride was also very tempting (& needed). It wasn’t until a few weeks into their first year of Preschool, when my husband and I starting to share the morning drop off, that I connected my phone to my car to play something that didn’t have that cheesy-but-awfully-catchy tune that turns your brain into mash potato ("Yes, yes, yes, I want to eat my peas…").

So that was the first thing I remembered I liked doing (for myself) after becoming a mum.

Despite all, I have also found a long list of new things I love, of course. Without a doubt, at the very top of that list is listening to that twin-double-laugh, as loud as humanly possible. Best song ever.

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