I have some of my own.

Today at the park, DS2.8 vehemently refused to play on the equipment, and instead initiated a game of "mathematical hotdog vendor". He created little arithmetic problems using hotdogs he made out of sand. The highlight for me was, "If I cook 6 hot dogs and Daddy eats 4 (!!), how many will be left?" He proceeded to impersonate DH bolting the hotdogs. In all fairness, DH is no glutton

We also built a pyramid in the sand, and DS told me he was carving out the Nile next to it.

You're so sweet. I wish my off-key pitch singing didn't bother DD but she has cried over it. When DD met her music teacher, she sang a couple of songs for DD and she has absolute pitch and a beautiful singing voice. I think DD fell in love with her then and there.



If my DD had been there, she would have said something like "You stop eating more than your fair share RIGHT NOW. You're going to get FAT you know."

I'm a pretty good singer, but clearly DD9 was, to put it mildly, unimpressed. Then we recently took a cruise, and DD and I were wandering the ship alone one evening when we stopped to listen to a performance of "When September Ends" with acoustic guitar. As we walked off, DD asked me what I thought of the singer, whose preferred style was clearly country, and his twanginess put me off a bit, so I said, "Not bad, but I could do that song better."

DD was outraged by that statement, which she clearly felt was unjustified by any evidence, and then I was mildly outraged by her outrage, because I sing all the time at home, and DO YOU EVEN KNOW ME ANYMORE? ;-)

In her defense, when I'm at the house and I randomly start singing, I'm in a goofing off mood. So if I'm not singing punk rock (which has awful vocals) or hair metal (she doesn't care for the style), I'll take a song with perfectly good vocals and mess it up. Like, if "Let It Go" is stuck in my head, I might start doing it in the style of bad opera, or say to myself, "Let's see what it sounds like if Elsa is a bass."

The outrage on both sides continued into the next night when we went to the karaoke lounge, and DD had to begrudgingly concede that I had some ability in that area... and although she still wasn't impressed with one of my selections, she did take note of the fact that other people clearly were. Her lack of appreciation of the range and beauty of Axl Rose shows that, even halfway to her adulthood, I have a lot more parenting to do.

Along those lines, I'd often wondered how DD's talent would present itself, given that I'm quite good, and DW is quite tone deaf. DD has developed slowly in this area, with a lot of off-tune singing mixed in with flashes of good quality, and so much embellishment of style throwing her off that you had to wonder whether she had an ear for it at all, or was just getting too "creative." So, even though it's a rather ordinary accomplishment, I'm rather pleased to note DD was selected to join the school choir next year.

Dude, that made me chuckle. DH has been solely responsible for DD's passion for Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. He has also made it a joy (well, okay-- almost since "joy" here is probably pushing it) to listen to such dreck as Katy Perry, Mylie Cyrus and Justin Beiber. He, um... well, he's what you'd get if you crossed Benny Hill with Weird Al. Heheheh... I'm also proud to note that the latter was DD's first live rock concert. She thinks that her dad's (scatological) version of "You Light Up My Life" is funnier than much of Weird Al's stuff, but nonetheless has a soft spot for "One More Minute" as a sort of graduation anthem.

We ran out of syrup one Saturday morning, and as I was watching the last few drops come out of the bottle I said, "We'll have to get more syrup at the store."

Without hesitation DS3 said, "Aisle 4."

Fast forward to the grocery store... He was right.

Dude, my father thinks he sings well and insists on signing his rendition of "Love Me Tender" at every wedding he's invited, even at a fancy black-tie wedding with a string quartet playing Vivaldi. Your DD should consider herself very fortunate that you have too much common sense to have taken over the stage because you think you can sing better.

KathrynH, it's taking me awhile to accept that DD is more often right than not. Our conversation often goes like this:

Me: "Oh, I guess you were right, I should have trusted you."
DD: "When are you going to learn?"

Interesting word choice there (italics). Do the two of you disagree?

One reason why I try not to bring this up very often is because, as my high school music teacher used to say, "Some people want to sing in the worst way. And they do." Much like having a gifted kid, being able to sing is one of those claims that is often made inaccurately.

Or then there's this: (and BTW, one of us is a trained musician, and one is an industry professional...not the same person, naturally!)

Me to spouse: "Do you think DC has better intonation than I do?"

Spouse: [momentary hesitation]

And I think that answers -that- question!

That pretty much sums up my father's singing. He is a very talented person overall but he cannot sing on pitch to save his life although he can carry a melody. My mother is even worse. My sister is an amazing singer so sometimes, it can skip a generation.

I'm pretty hopeless. My SO has relative pitch. My DD has absolute pitch. She loves screaming different key notes to the tuner and see it hit the middle of the pitch.

I feel left out.

ETA: Dude, you might want to sing a simple song with a tuner text to you. This is how SO proved to DD that he's not as off pitch as she accuses him to be.

So my DD10 said, out of the blue, "I wonder what a discussion between Sherlock from the BBC's version and Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory would be like?"