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Slice-of-life stories about parenthood

Shine Parenting Guru Entry: A Family Tradition That Rocks

Shine Parenting Guru Entry: A Family Tradition That Rocks

October 12, 2010 by Amy, Using Our Words 17 Comments

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As some of you may know, I’ve been crossposting many of my blog posts on Shine for close to a year now. I recently saw that they were doing a call for Parenting Guru entries and before I knew it my busy fingers were typing a (less than) 200 word post about a special family tradition. Yesterday I found out I was named one of Shine’s 20+ Parenting Gurus! I’m not exactly sure what it entails yet, but I wanted to say thank you to my readers for all of your support with my blog. You’ve given me great ideas, feedback and a sense of confidence to put myself (and my writing) out there in new, exciting ways. I can’t wait to share this adventure with you! Here’s the post that got me the Guru title…

Our family tradition isn’t a once-of-year kind of thing. It’s become a way of life. Years (and years) ago when my husband and I were first dating, he’d see me starting to get stressed out about something and he’d turn on some music. “Let’s dance it out.” Within seconds of watching his silly faces and shaking hips, I couldn’t help but laugh and feel a little better.

Now that we have jobs, kids, ailing family members and a mortgage, stress is a part of everyday life. But in our house, dancing is too. Whenever someone starts getting grumpy or bored, we turn on the music and dance it out.

Frustrated getting that snug t-shirt off for bath time? The whole family—even Little who’s just 22 months—breaks into song and dance. “Put your hands up! They’re playing my song and the butterflies fly away!”

Rough day at school? Nothing a little kiddie rock can’t cure.

Syrup bottle shattered all over the kitchen floor? Turn it up, then clean it up.

As a mom, my worries go on and on. But fortunately so does the music. Every day I’m grateful to celebrate life’s ups and downs with my tiny dancers.

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Filed Under: Mom Musings, Shine Parenting Guru, Tips & Ideas Tagged With: celebration, dancing, friends, gratitude, husband, kids, Mom Musings, Shine Parenting Guru, support, Tips & Ideas

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Comments

  1. Amy N says

    October 12, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Love it! We too share that tradition…it is best and only brings lots of giggles! Love your pic 🙂
    Congrats!!!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      October 12, 2010 at 10:27 am

      And we love sharing in our tradition with all of you…these dancing kiddos are adorable!

      Reply
  2. Mamapork says

    October 12, 2010 at 10:24 am

    Congrats. You are one SHINING star Amy 🙂 Keep up with your incredible writing. “I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me…. “

    Reply
    • Amy says

      October 12, 2010 at 10:27 am

      Aww, thanks, my friend. I forgot to mention that Little also loves Lady Gaga! 😉

      Reply
  3. Christina says

    October 12, 2010 at 9:48 pm

    Yay!! Congrats!! Btw, that picture cracks me up and I’m almost sure it’s from our wedding!? Love it!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      October 12, 2010 at 9:52 pm

      Wow, Christina, you’re right. Great eye! It was such a wonderful celebration and we danced the night away. (After all, you obviously have great taste in music since we had the same first song!)

      Reply
  4. Jodie says

    October 13, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    You are most definitely a guru!!! Another name for your blog could have been WWAD (what would Amy do?!) 😉
    In the Hoffhousehold, we’re all about singing it out… we can’t sing and our lyrics often make no sense (and MOST often revolve around “stinky” things), but it does the trick 😉

    Reply
    • Amy says

      October 16, 2010 at 3:35 pm

      Jodie, you’re far too kind. I’m all for singing too! I remember that Hoffdad used to make up diaper changing songs…one of my favorite parenthood stories. Sounds like you’ve been great influences on your little superstars!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. I’ve Used My Words, And Now I’m Reflecting On Them…With Thanks To You | Using Our Words says:
    January 1, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    […] A Family Tradition That Rocks: Our secret to a happy house? Dancing. And thanks to that, I was selected to be a Shine Parenting Guru—one of 20 moms from around the country who write on an assigned topic each month for the Shine Parenting page. […]

    Reply
  2. 10 Things I Learned This Week, Vol 66 says:
    June 3, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    […] think I better sign off so we can do some serious dancing it out tonight. I think I feel a fever comin’ on…yeah, […]

    Reply
  3. Better Than I Was - Project Underblog says:
    November 16, 2012 at 8:10 am

    […] long to realize that we’d get there much faster if we stuck together. He knew just how to defuse my short fuse. I knew just how to laugh at his silly jokes. He knew just how to laugh with me and at himself. And […]

    Reply
  4. Just Dance- A State of Mind and a Review says:
    November 1, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    […] Just Dance 2014. Rock out to my Wii in the privacy of my own living room? Yes, please! If you know me at all, you know this was like an early Christmas […]

    Reply
  5. 10 Things I Learned This Week, Vol 132 says:
    January 19, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    […] they did at school and they both enthusiastically reply, “We had to shake our booties!” this mama can’t help but feel like that tuition check is money well […]

    Reply
  6. Music of the Heart - Project Underblog says:
    April 8, 2014 at 7:02 am

    […] I don’t play the guitar, we do a whole lot of singing and dancing in our house. Pink, who’s far more tech savvy than I am, knows how to play music from my locked — yes, […]

    Reply
  7. Gift Guide: Books You’ll Want to Open says:
    December 15, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    […] It happened to be written by the first editor I worked with as a blogger. Not only did she crown me a Shine Parenting Guru, she wrote a novel that’s so raw and honest (touching on a difficult subject that I know far too […]

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  8. The Best of Intentions for 2015 says:
    January 5, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    […] certainly need to be those moments of silence to still our minds and ease our souls, I also find dancing to overly loud pop music to be outrageously calming. And belly laughs? There’s always room in my world for more of those. […]

    Reply
  9. A SoulCycle Celebration- 7 Years of UOW - Using Our Words says:
    June 27, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    […] simply a fun way to come together and dance on a bike. In the dark. To great music. (And you know dancing is my thing even if I don’t have a particular talent for it. This also translates to my SoulCycle […]

    Reply

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