Comfort Music

Enjoying the Sounds of Home

The biggest success that came out of my many hours of travel preparations was, hands down, making each child their own playlist.  Since the time that Jack, my middle child, turned 3, I have often used headphones and music to soothe him.  It started as a night time "PLEASE SLEEP!!!" tool and then grew branches into other areas of our lives.  Now I also use it with Jack for:

Anger management cool down
To beat car boredom
Early morning seclusion /(don't wake up the rest of us)

Having spent his 3 years in a musical household, Liam has always had a song in his heart.  He sings as he plays with cars, takes a bath, eats,  and goes to the bathroom, pretty much all of the time.  In fact, often, Liam chooses to sing in conversation rather then speak.   Jack and Liam even been heard arguing in song ("It ...  is....    mine"  "NO IT"S NOT"  "yes...   it...    is"   "NO IT"S NOT".  

It should have been no surprise that, while traveling, the best source of comfort (outside of Mom and Dad) for my children was music.  Why?  Music evokes emotion and memory.  It transports us, soothes us, calms us and gives a voice to emotions that we can not find the words for ourselves.   I was simply trying to find a way to keep my children from being bored and frustrated.  But, music gave them much more then entertainment.  It gave them comfort.

Liam's favorite music, a Kindermusik medley.  In particular, anything car themed and the song"Apples and Bananas".  Amelia escaped to her tween pop happy place while Jack rocked out to his pretween songs of angst.  I enjoyed my favorite sound of all, quite.

What is your child's favorite song or musical style?