Let's hope something here sticks
Remember that one time when I talked about how I was really trying to figure out how to get my crap together and Live with Intention and stuff?
Well. I have made some good progress in some areas (not all, but some). One thing I've started doing is bringing my iPad to the kitchen table with me in the morning. While I'm getting the Tiny Dark Lord's breakfast ready, I turn on a playlist with Primary songs on it. (You can download the whole thing for free). TDL loves it. He bops in his seat while cramming fried eggs and bananas into his mouth. And I like to hope that some of these songs will be familiar to him once he starts hearing them in Primary (he starts nursery in THREE MONTHS, people).
Once I sit down with my breakfast, I read the scriptures on my iPad. This lasts until the Dark Lord starts throwing food onto the floor with both hands as a signal that scripture time is over. So. It's not ideal, but I have decided not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, here. If it's a choice between what is ideal and what is actually possible, I'm going with possible.
Am whittling out the songs I don't care for, and the random ones about gardening that he will never sing in Primary anyway, and the ones with weird adult voices in them. It's funny, listening to some of these songs as an adult. Some of the lyrics and vocabulary seem like they would just go over the heads of most kids, like this line from "Dare to Do Right".
"Dare to do right, dare to be true!
Other men's failures can never save you."
Huh? How would you explain the bit about other men's failures? Also, sexist. It continues:
"Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith;
Stand like a hero and battle till death."
Why are these kids singing about battling till death, exactly? Turns out though that this song was written at least 100 years ago, which kind of makes more sense.
The song "I Wonder When He Comes Again" has a line that asks, "Will herald angels sing?" When I was little I thought the line went, "Will [my maiden name] angels sing?" Like, will my brothers and sisters and I be there, singing and looking all angelic for once? Considering the changes I made to "I'll Walk With You," this was unlikely. It's a song by Carol Lynn Pearson (the author of that No More Goodbyes book I just blogged about ) and it's about being kind to kids who are different in some way. As an eight or nine year old with a highly sophisticated sense of humor, I modified, "If you don't walk as most people do, some people walk away from you," to, "If you don't poop as most people do, some people poop away from you," etc.
Sorry, Sister Pearson. I really like your song now.
I'm Steph, a librarian and mom of 3 (not sure how that happened). Let's chat books, food, Sumptuous Literary Adaptations, poop, knitting and maybe some crazy Mormon Feminism.
8 comments:
First, I will never hear that song without poop being in there. So thank you for that!
Second, thanks for the clever primary songs indoctrination idea. My 13 month old loves all those Mormon Message videos - the cowboy on "I Am a Child of God" stops him mid-tantrum - but I hadn't thought about a breakfast soundtrack. I'm going to try it.
Yeah, the whole "it was written 100 years ago" argument works until I remember that just a couple of years ago when I was in the Primary presidency, the adult hymn that the Primary had to learn was "How Firm A Foundation", which contains such gems as:
"As thy days may demand so thy succor shall be."
Really? They couldn't come up with ANY OTHER adult hymn that was a tad more accessible to kids.
Anyway, rant over. I am very impressed by your good ideas toward bettering yourself AND TDL.
I love this post. I didn't grow up in church, but I do teach Sunday school to the kids in my (Reformed) church, so I'm hearing the kids' songs for the first time as an adult. Some of them are ... interesting.
...at this point, even if the only thing that sticks is the eggs to the floor, I would still consider this post a solid WIN.
I still say not herald when I sing this song, just to keep the love alive.
I need to download those because I, as a convert, am unfamiliar with most of the Primary songs and my kids only know all the words to Once There Was A Snowman Which is how we ended up singing together (last night, as a matter of fact) our version of Book Of Mormon Stories that featured a rhino and a hippo who take the ark for a joyride to Shakey's pizza. Possibly irreverent. But the giggling was worth it.
"If you don't poop as most people do, some people poop away from you,"
One of many things I should've gone through life without ever knowing. And to think there are probably many others yet waiting to be discovered.
And Kelly, I love you btw, but don't even dis How Firm A Foundation. I cry every time I sing it and now that you have read this post you can see that as I am the author's mother there were days that demanded much succoring!
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