Mr. Mike’s Family Notes: Meet the Winslow Family

The Winslow family joined us when Perry was little. Brenna came from a house where people sang, and she wanted that for her own family too.

Brenna signed up for Deborah's class for the same reason a lot of parents do: she needed things to do with a baby. Not baby-tolerating things but baby-friendly things. A mom in her PACE group rallied a few parents to sign up together and they joined as a group.

What she didn't mention at the time, and maybe didn't even realize yet, was that she hadn't had a place to sing out loud since college.

Brenna grew up singing. Church, musical theater, a band with her sisters in high school. Music wasn't something she watched other people do. It was something she participated in. 

And the baby? He made it his own immediately. He took his first steps in one of Brenna's classes. Said "Mama" for the first time in one of Deb's. Two milestones that had nothing to do with music and everything to do with what happens when a child feels safe and alive in a room full of people making sounds and moving together.

Q. Is there a song from any collection that Perry sings, asks for, or responds to at home?

A. Don Alfredo Baila. That man and his brazos got us through a nine-hour road trip when Perry was about eight months old. Do my husband and I ever want to hear it again after playing it on repeat for TWO HOURS? Let's just say we are glad it will be a few years before that collection cycles back through. But Perry showed us that you can't cry when you baila, and that was enough for us.

Q. What made you want to go from taking the class to teaching it?

A. I'm solidly in my caretaking era, so any job I take on needs to be one where Perry can be with me if my husband can't be with him. Not only had I learned a lot about the joys and upsides of singing together as a family, but I realized that I hadn't had a place to sing out loud since I was in college. I've always believed in the power of the arts. After all, I met my husband in a drama class when we were in high school. And being a new mom, especially in these trying times, I felt like I needed music in my life. I like to think I'm the Music Together mission in action. I may not be a professional musician, but I love to sing and dance with my kid whether I sound "good" or not. I also love the opportunity, during free dance and play, to show parents that introducing their children to music they themselves enjoy is such a wonderful bonding opportunity.

Now that Perry has aged out of the baby classes, Brenna sometimes subs in them. She sees parents doing this for the first time, looking for exactly what she was looking for: a place to be with their baby and be with other people who are going through it at the same time. She always makes sure to tell them at the end of the lullaby that they will sleep again one day soon.

Q. Do you remember a song your parents or grandparents sang to you when you were small?

A. I remember my stepfather picking me up in the kitchen and spinning me around while singing "My Girl" by The Temptations. I also distinctly remember being in my stepmom's convertible, top down, singing every word to Madonna's "Material Girl," much to the shock (horror?) of my father. We weren't a traditional lullaby family. I got songs from The Beatles to Creedence Clearwater Revival, whatever my parents were into at the time. It's something I've continued with Perry. If he doesn't know Beyoncé's entire catalog before he's ten, I've done something wrong.

That's the thing about music in families. It doesn't have to be lullabies. It doesn't have to be children's songs. It just has to be real. A dad spinning his kid in the kitchen. A stepmom with the top down. Singing for survival on a nine-hour drive with the baby.

This is what musical families do.

There's a spot for your family. Come see what a class sounds like.