PLAN OUR ESCAPE
My kids really liked “Guardians of the Galaxy”, as did I (pointless swearing notwithstanding). I’m even happier that the kids have now fallen in love with some great 70’s & 80’s pop hits because they’re featured on the ‘Guardians’ soundtrack.
Said soundtrack includes Rupert Holmes, ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’. You’ll notice, I put the parenthetical title. My wife and I had a 15 minute discussion while hauling the kids in tow, about how no one EVER refers to this song as ‘Escape’. You would throw a radio DJ for a loop just saying that name in your song request, but before you could get to the Colada in ‘The Piña Colada Song’, that bad boy would already be blasting over the airwaves. The discussion spiraled into a us making fun of a clueless Holmes, who was surely told by everyone, NOT to call it ‘Escape’ and just go with the obvious. We giggled like school girls in our mocking and chiding. We imagined Rupert Holmes as a nearly maniacal egomaniac who simply would not take “NO” for answer.
I realized as we wound down, that CJ was listening raptly from the middle seat. I grinned, knowing this wasn’t the first time (nor the last) that he’d be exposed to such an extremely nerdy and nonsensical deconstruction of pop culture.
I was also happy he could see his Mom & Dad have more in common than not. He has a Mom and Dad that (unlike the set he was born into) don’t physically fight in front of him, throw tantrums, act like children themselves, or regard his as a baby doll one moment – and burden the next. He gets to see we’re also intrigued by the absurd… and it’s OK to waste moments of life trying to suss out something that doesn’t matter. It’s good to laugh and use your brain for silliness sometimes.
I know many parents that talk about their kids as burdens. And while I joke about it, no one who knows me would believe I meant it. I love these kids. I also love and adore my wife. I don’t feel trapped with her in parenthood. We’re a good team, and when it comes to the bad times, we’ve given each other support, strength, and laughter when needed.
When you have a partner like I do, there’s no need to ‘plan our escape’… but that stuff on the Dunes does sound like fun.