Random Thoughts on Motherhood

I never thought I'd be glad to have a CD player that skips if you look at it the wrong way. But I am. Why?

In recent weeks Bethany (my 3-yr-old, to refresh your memory) has really been dealing with her fear of loud sounds, particularly car alarms. We have a neighbor whose truck alarm goes off unpredictably at any time of day or night, and although to you and me it isn't even loud enough to be seriously intrusive, to her it must sound like a Chinese gong or a fire truck because the minute she hears it, she becomes hysterical and tears down the upstairs hallway screaming in terror and fright. In other words, she freaks out. So in addition to her dad and I patiently explaining, ad nauseam, what the car alarm is and how it won't hurt her, and reassuring her with hugs and a drink of milk each night at bedtime, I realized that I could put her love of classical music to good use in this instance by playing her classical "quiet time" CD. It's full of soft compositions by Mozart, Beethoven, and others and really seems to quiet her down. The only problem is, our CD player is an old dinosaur from Walmart that once upon a time, operated with the standard level of perfection that one can expect from a discount department store, but having now succumbed to the inevitable and seemingly rapid-fire electronics aging process, only works sporadically and seems to have developed its own will concerning which CDs it will play and which ones it won't. Thankfully it seems to like "Quiet Time"...but being the old fogie it is, skips very easily and can't even withstand the normal jostling of gently moving it across a table six inches. So why am I thankful for this? Well it sure makes it a good motivator for making Bethany stay in her bed and being still! Yesterday she thought she might be able to get away with quietly standing up on the bed and "just bouncing, Mommy"...I didn't even have to threaten a swat on the bum. Her innocuous bouncing had of course caused the floor to vibrate just enough to knock Ol' Grandpaw CD player off its groove. So she paused, looked at me, and said "CD's stopped; where'd the moosic go?" I said "well, if you want the music to keep playing, you have to lie down and be still, because when you move around, it skips." Worked like a charm. She went to sleep. I am going to keep that old player and use it for as long as it has breath...and when it finally does pass away, I will be sad. But I won't go buy a new one...I'll get one of those ones for free off Freecycle, that "needs work"...that's just what I'm looking for! One man's trash really IS another man's treasure! :)