the Meatball and the Grammys

As we were gearing up to start another week, the Meatball ran into our room this morning with one excited question, "Did Taylor Swift win after I went to bed???" Referring to her short lived viewing of the Grammys, the Meatball, her sister and I were one of the 25.8 million Americans that watched the Grammys last night. CBS had been advertising the annual awards event to tune in to see which female singer would take the most coveted prize in music, Album of the Year. With two little girls at home, I'm all about supporting female empowerment and watching dreams come true. So under my supervision, we watched the first hour of the Grammys (woo hoo bedtime was postponed for a whole hour!)

As we watched I fielded questions about Lady Gaga, interjected little lessons during performances and speech acceptances about how each of these artists had to work very hard for a very long time to get their award or nomination (Beyonce's story is a great example), and offered random words of encouragement anytime I saw the Meatball's eyes light up with excitement or start dancing around to a song she knew. (Subliminal message: You can do this too!)

Growing up, the Colonel and Rambo weren't so supportive of occupations that they deemed unstable. So even if I had created a whole stage show with programs, performing tunes from ABBA (sung and choreographed by moi) at the end of the show they would still remind me that although it was fun and nice, I needed to focus on my education. Now as a mother, I can see their perspective and how in this economy and society, financial and career stability has taken the forefront and seemingly only a select few succeed when following their dreams. I can now understand their worry of the risks and struggles one has to take in order to follow their dream. I only wished they communicated it a little better. Now as a parent, I try to support any glimpse of a dream I see unfolding, asking questions, creating dialogue, finding positive role models to encourage my girls to dive into things they are passionate about... of course after they've done their homework.  But Taylor Swift, a young girl herself, couldn't have said it better when she accepted the award for Album of the Year, "thank you Dad for all those times you said I could do whatever I wanted in life" and really that's what it's all about. As parents, there's only so much we can do to help, support, guide, counsel our children while we have them, the rest we just have to trust we did or are doing the best we can.