Questionable Parenting: Dad Reveals Psych-up Tunes

Sometimes baby needs needs to rock.

When the kids were younger the fun, jump-around song was the "Theme from Hawaii Five-O," an inspiring instrumental surf tune played by the Ventures.

After a while I needed something new so I'd crank "Welcome to the Jungle," by Guns and Roses. That one was never too much of a hit but the scream at the beginning was fun, at least to me.

I suspect that getting the kids motivated by the music was partly related to how much I rocked when the tunes began to thump the floorboards. I have always loved dancing and rocking out with the kids -- I liken it to swimming with dolphins, albeit smartalek-y dolphins that ask weird questions.

Then I began cranking "Hot for Teacher" by Van Halen. This is thematically inappropriate but I figured the kids were still too young to really understand. Still, the bombastic drumming in the intro and ensuring guitar riffs were awesome.

Now the song that I will flail around to when played in the hopes of motivation is "Breed," by Nirvana. The lyrics come off as a nearly incoherent yell while the guitar and bass lines explode like a freight train hit with a Scud.

The daughter is learning to play Nirvana songs on the guitar and has covered her math textbook with a Nirvana-inspired drawing. I am proud she has such refined musical taste.


There is part of me that feels the musical influences I pass on should be less rebellious. Whatever, I'm already too far gone down this road. As they say, it's only rock `n' roll, but they (the kids) like it.