Ali Martell: Straight Up, With a Twist

Jan
04
2012

One Pair of Leggings Away From 1984

AKA Why We Became Parents

My husband and I have the complete opposite taste in music. He tends to lean towards the classic rock side, and his favourites include Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and The Black Crowes. I tend to lean towards the indie rock side, and my favourites include The Avett Brothers, Band of Horses and Neutral Milk Hotel. I find his music loud and screamy, and he finds mine slow and tired and far too full of angst. 

But you pull out the 80s music and we land on equal footing. 

Sure, it was a decade full of horrible clothing, hairstyles and OMG THE DEBBIE GIBSON HAT. But, it was also full of wonderful things, like John Hughes movies and The Facts of Life and, well, this:

And, really, it doesn't get much better than that.

Love is a battlefield. We're holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night. It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight. Girls just want to have fun. I'm lost and I'm found and I'm hungry like the wolf. Walk like an Egyptian. 99 Luftballoons. Take me home tonight; I don't want to let you go til you see the light. I can feel St. Elmo's fire burning in me. I wish that I had Jessie's girl. Ground control to Major Tom. Forever young, I want to be forever young. Ooh, heaven is a place on earth. We are living in a material world and I am a material girl. Who's Johnny, she said, and smiled in that special way. The east end boys and west end girls. Tell it to my heart, tell me I'm the only one, is this really love or just a game? We did it all for the glory of love. Parents just don't understand. Billie Jean is not my lover. 

We were having the best time having ourselves a little 80s dance party

while watching our ten-year-old daughter cry. 

Seriously. 

She had her hands over her ears, crying in a mess of tears...

..."You guys know to the WORST music ever! I can't listen to this anymore! ACK! Stop it! Just stop it! You are killing me!"

Just then my husband and I looked at each and we knew.

THIS is exactly why we became parents. 

So we could mortify our children with the 1980s. 

I remember feeling exactly this way when my parents used to belt out the Peter, Paul and Mary and Simon and Garfunkel. That is, of course, until I learned to appreciate them. And learned that I can now use it to make my children cry. Thanks, Mom!

 

Want more pop culture? Find out what Jude Law and I have in common here