Playlist

I grabbed my daughter’s iPod as I left to exercise the other day (for those of you who know me and my mostly lax exercise regiment, feel free to smirk now). I figured her nano would clip on to my shirt easily and I’d be able to find some music to keep me distracted. What I found was an homage to all things Disney — starting from The Little Mermaid and straight through to Camp Rock. As I flipped through looking for something that crossed the 26 year age divide and veered more into my music taste, I noticed someone else lurking in my daughter’s musical choices: my father.

I think most children will admit to being embarrassed by their parents at some point in their childhood. For me, that moment came on my winter walks with my father. Growing up in Toronto, winter was long and super cold and there were some unspoken rules: you wore a coat, you wore boots, you wore gloves, you wore a hat. Things worked differently with my father: he wore earmuffs and gloves. No coat, no boots, nothing to truly acknowledge how absolutely freezing it was out. It was all earmuffs and gloves. And as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough to a nine year old, he also sang. Loudly. His musical taste was varied — there were a lot of showtunes, a lot of classic rock and jazz and a lot of the Beatles. And it was all sitting on my daughter’s iPod.

My daughter and parents have a wonderful bond. She spends weekends with them as often as she can. She loves the attention, the calmness and the unconditional love that manifests itself through hundreds of games of rummy cube, tons of treats and hours of discussions. She calls my father for discussions on Greek mythology and he is only too happy to oblige with emails full of links and graphics and points to ponder.

And she listens to his music. The Music Man, American in Paris, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald — they are all becoming a part of her childhood just as they were of mine.

I can’t promise that I’ll be grabbing her iPod the next time I run out, but I am certainly happy to know that it is there.

What about you? What is on your playlist?