If you have children (or spend any time around them at all), when you read the title of this post, you immediately started singing- whether you want to admit it or not. This tune by Walk the Moon has been all over the radio, and become a popular song to be remixed at clubs, sporting events, and other venues. My girls love this song, but the lyrics have been cause for some serious discussion in our home. Around our house, “Shut Up” is considered a bad word. It is unkind and not something we say to each other. Explaining to the girls how in the context of the song, using the words “shut up” is okay, but it’s still not okay to say in other settings has been tricky to navigate. Nonetheless, when we play this song at home, we all sing along and dance our hearts out.
And, if I’m completely honest, it’s not just this song. We have impromptu dance parties on a regular basis at our house. They occur most often in the kitchen, perhaps because that is the place where we are all together most often. Maybe it’s because that’s where our Amazon Alexa is located, so that is where we are playing music. It is not uncommon, however, for my husband to walk in the door from work and find both of our girls and me dancing barefoot in the kitchen. Sometimes he just shakes his head and smiles, and sometimes he joins in. (He’s the best at lifting the girls, of course.)
I remember doing this as a child. In our own house, it started when our oldest was a baby. I was staying home with her at the time and was trying to be as domestic as possible. This is not something that comes naturally to me, but something I enjoy. I would strap her to me and cook simultaneously. I often had to turn on music and take dance breaks just to keep her happy long enough to fix dinner. As she got bigger, I was able to sit her on the floor with pots and pans and wooden spoons and she would bang along to the music while I sang and danced my way through cooking. Many meals got completed because she was entertained just enough to let me finish. I’ve even managed to have her stand on top of my feet and move around the kitchen while checking on casseroles and cookies.
As she got older, and as baby sister joined our family, she became an expert in entertaining her while I cooked. For some reason, children never want as much attention as they do when you have your hands full. She was able to dance and sing with her sister while I mixed and baked. Being able to turn on some music and dance step between the stove and the refrigerator with my two girls became a skill I needed to master if we wanted to eat on time. It became such a part of their early childhood, that they will now just pop into the kitchen and request a dance break. No, it’s not always convenient, and yes, I have burned a few items while dancing with my girls, but it is so worth it.
My girls are now 11 and 6 years old. As my husband reminded me just the other day, that means I only have 7 more years of them living at home together. They may not always get along and we are slowly inching towards the teenage years (and the attitude that comes with that stage), but when the right song is playing and we are all dancing and singing in the kitchen, time seems to stand still. No one is too cool for a dance break. No one is too busy to be spun across our tile, makeshift dance floor. Everyone wants to be dipped by Daddy. And it’s really hard not to smile when your mother is as goofy as I tend to be when dancing.
I know I will cherish these moments when they are gone. I hope they will remember these moments as well. I hope they will remember the fun. I hope they will always feel the lightheartedness. I pray they will know their home was full of love, but most of all, I hope they will remember that I was never too busy to just shut up and dance with them!
