The other day I took both children to soft play on a rainy day at the weekend. I know! What was I thinking? My husband wasn't feeling great so we had to get out of the house. I braced myself. It couldn't be that bad, could it? I made sure we got there early and there were very few people there. Luckily my children are now at an age where they can climb everything and can generally keep themselves entertained inside the soft play area. However, I heard a child crying which sounded like mine, so I raced into the soft play, passing small children on the yellow and orange steps in and ran around like a mad-eyed frantic woman. I found them. They were happily playing and helping each other down the slide. It wasn't my child crying. Whoever said you know your own child's cry was totally wrong. Either that or the maternal side of me just doesn't work when it comes to crying!
I went back to my vantage point where I could see them and started reading my book again. I checked on them regularly, but about ten minutes later I looked up and couldn't see them. Once again panic set in. I clambered up the steps with my heart beating fast. I looked around everywhere but I couldn't see them. Then I spotted them, playing in the kitchen area on the ground. I breathed a sigh of relief.
As I started my descent from the soft play castle, the tannoy spluttered into life and a song blared out. Within three seconds of it starting, every single child in the whole soft play centre stood still. They looked like mini child-warriors, frozen and ready for battle. Then they burst into life, waving their hands around their head and then putting them crossed in front of them bouncing up and down shouting whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop...heeeeey, sexy lady. I clambered past the dancing children to find my own dancing away at the bottom of the stairs.
I admit to being rather freaked out by the power one song has over our children. The fact that they all froze as the song started and then burst into the same dance move! One of my earliest memories is being on holiday in Portugal and being taught the dance moves to The Birdie Song when I was about four. I do still remember the dance, but I don't feel an urge to do it when the music starts. No, really I don't!
OK, scrap that, I just found it on YouTube and I do feel an urge to dance to it! Isn't it amazing that music has that power over us all? Is there a song which you remember from being small which you danced to?
