Azul Always On Beat
I am well aware of the fact that there will come a day when my now six year-old will no longer play with me, and my innocent request for fun will be greeted with a deep sigh, roll of the eyes and the dreaded “Maaahm.” But until then he is mine to do as I please, or until I get in trouble.
Recently I have found another way to amuse myself at the expense of my child (yes, I mean play) … and it’s awesome! This may not be new to you, but it is to us, and it’s called Dubsmash. If you’ve never wasted countless hours of your busy day on this app, you are certainly missing out.
It’s basically a video app where you record yourself during a short audio clip (only a few seconds) and there are hundreds of audio clips to choose from. Now, any responsible parent would go through the clips in advance and edit out the more obscene options before including your child in this activity, and believe me, there are a lot of questionable clips. I would imagine doing so would be similar to the way the Motion Picture Association of America rates movies, so you know which ones to watch with your underage child and which have “material not suitable for children.” Or you can just jump right in with your six year-old and start recording and listening to any and all material without any worries. The choice is all yours.
The “jump right in” option, by the way, is hilarious if you think watching your innocent little blessing mouth the words to something dirty is funny, because to them they are just words, words without meaning. After all, you haven’t really taken the time to define what “cocksucker” means until he says it in front of your husband, who doesn’t find that behavior quite as funny as you do, and you get in trouble for promoting “vulgar” behavior, not instilling a sense of humor, which is what you thought you were doing because you think humor is an important trait. Ugh! That’s just one hypothetical situation that could happen if you do not edit your audio clips in advance, again the choice is all yours.
Well anyway, this is Azul’s favorite, rated “A” (by the yes I’ve already checked it for content association) for ALL to enjoy! He loves this song, chose his own prop and stayed right on beat. (Really, it’s okay to click on, it’s not dirty, I’ve learned my lesson from the above, totally made-up scenario.)
A Tale Of A Parental Ride
There are days when the constant complaining and questions and needs from your child take a toll. It’s like being pushed faster and faster on a merry-go-round, making you dizzy. And when you get to that point, for some odd reason (I think it’s called being a parent) you end up saying something nonsensical. Okay, straight up stupid.
We were having dinner at the table and my six year-old was super antsy and very talkative, he wouldn’t sit down and had ache after ache, and problem after problem to spin this particular night. There was nothing seriously wrong with him and I think he continued with this behavior because he knew it was starting to get to me. I wonder where he learned that.
Suddenly, I looked up from my plate and said to Azul with my eyebrows raised, “You know what you need?”
“What?” He responded as he stopped in mid-sentence of another complaint.
“A good dose of suck it up.” Whaaat!?! Where did that come from? Where could I have even picked that up? Who says that? Oh, I’m dizzy!
The spinning in my head stopped, along with everything else. That statement caused a brief moment of silence and then, laughter! All the complaining cease and we continued dinner laughing and repeating, “You know what you need? A good dose of suck it up!”
I’m still a little embarrassed over that statement, but I know what I need to get over it.
Fully Charged
Like many families these days, we are device dependent. We have our family laptop, Azul has his Kindle (which he has had since he was five), and I of course have my smartphone with me 24/7. We use all of them and sometimes all at the same time. I don’t really have a problem with using technology, I think it’s a useful resource and knowing how to correctly use technology is a skill best learned young. I mean, have you ever tried to teach a grandparent how to login TO ANYTHING!?! Ugh!!! Well, it seems as if my six and a half year-old fully understands the importance of and our dependency on devices.
“If you go to Heaven or Hell, I’ll throw your phone and charger to you so you can call me,” Azul said to me.
“Thank you my love. And thanks for including my charger, that’s something everyone forgets,” I responded to my technologically responsible child.
Carmelina Hart 