It's A Dance Party Whores & Sluts!

I've said it before but it needs to be known that I am a cool mom. I had a cool mom who was listening to Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, etc and my mom listened to it loud. My mom never filtered what we listened to because she knew she was raising us to use our damn brains. In high school my mom bought me Marilyn Manson and Orgy (if you have no idea who Orgy is...go to the very end of my playlist and have fun) because they were on my Christmas list. And didn't mind if I blared it in my room. She never batted an eye when half of my room was dedicated to rock posters that you had to be 18 to buy. She took me to Hot Topic to buy my pants with straps, chains, and all kinds of bizarre add ons. I got a Marilyn Manson shirt, a Cherry Poppin Daddies shirt (I did get a weird look on this), among others. My mom is just a cool chick.

So when I had kids I was determined to not be that loser mom picking her kids up with the golden oldies going. I will admit that when I bought my mini-van, although spacious and can hold up to seven people, it doesn't ooze coolness. I gave up my white lumina that was fully decorated with tribal and band stickers on the entire back window as well as the back side windows. THAT looked cool. I upgraded to a mini-van which has been great for roadtrips but just isn't cool. Already when I am rolling around with my kids and we have the windows down and we're singing at the top of our lungs with some Anberlin, All Time Low, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne, and various other artists that you don't expect to be blaring out of a mini-van, we get weird looks. Oh well.

But that doesn't compare to what we do every night while I'm cooking dinner. We have a dance party to put all dance parties to shame.

First, you need your glasses. Here, Jackson is showing you how he prefers his to be upside down.

Meanwhile Olivia switches between her Dora pink shades and these flower ones. I mean, it's whatever she's feeling. But we do a lot of arm movements- here's her "holding the roof" pose.
And then we go hog wild. We are loud, we jump around, people get hurt but we don't stop. We're singing loudly/borderline screaming. We are shaking our asses. We're dancing with tears in our eyes. Lots of laughing, spinning, booty shaking.
Join us by clicking on the playlist to your right. This week Jackson has really been feeling a bit of Flo-Rida. I like me some Flo and Olivia sang chorus.
My kids can properly head bang, we have pretend mosh pits (in the living room with pillows on the floor), we pretend to hold lighters in our hands, it's all very cool up in here.

My kids don't like quiet/slow stuff so much. We're more of a rock/alternative/rap/r&b family. Well, not really Matt- he's not much into music. (Obviously the outcast here) They don't listen to a lullaby for bed, never have. Jackson really likes the blues (Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton, BB King, etc) and Olivia likes anything. She is REALLY into the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack. It's fun to watch my kids jam out to some Led Zeppelin- who are probably one of my favorite classic rock bands, next to the Eagles. Oh and the Doors. Oh who am I kidding- there are a ton. But these 3 are cd's that are next to my cd player. We all love to dance to the Immigrant Song. How could that song NOT get you fired up??

I try to buy one new cd each payday and we all get to pick one together. This week we got Jakob Dylan's Women & Country and it's great. Lots of drums so that's cool. Even Olivia said, "I feel like we should pretend cowboys and cowgirls with this music" and she's right- definitely has a country/bluesy feel to it. Very cool, very interesting. But I also splurged and on Mr. O's recommendation I got some Envy on the Coast. My kids? Fucking LOVE Envy on the Coast. They want more. (Don't let the kids down, Mr. O!)

If I pass none of my other interests/passions on, I am so glad they got my love of music. I'm pretty eclectic on what I like. If I don't like something that's a pretty big deal. I have been told that my cd collection is "schizophrenic" and I actually like it that way. How boring to be stuck in one genre. I like just about everything. I'll even dance to some polka (thanks to working with seniors I can appreciate the accordion, dirty old men, and beer tents).