Songs of (Parental) Love

"The first things that she took from me were selfishness and sleep"

Hey Honey,

After reading your last post, a reader and friend mentioned to me that they would love to hear more songs from parents, about parenting. I emphatically agreed, but as I ruminated over it, I could only think of two - TWO - songs that adequately met those criteria (in addition to your song): "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens, used to great effect at the end of Ted Lasso, and "Gracie" by Ben Folds, which has some fantastic lyrics:

You can't fool me, I saw you when you came out
You got your momma's taste but you got my mouth

There are more (I found some, read on) but I've come to realize that this is a horribly under-represented subject in music. Some new glitzy chart-topper comes out every week expounding on the glamour of irresponsible youth. There's an entire genre — torch songs — dedicated to unrequited love. But parenting? Precious little time is devoted to that.

Sure, there are songs about nesting, like "Our House" by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, or kids being messed up by their parents, like "Alive" by Pearl Jam or "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson (I never expected I'd ever refer to those two artists in the same sentence). So I did some digging and found a few more. Here are some highlights from my research.

Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
I'd be remiss to exclude Mr. Taylor here. Frankly I'm embarrassed I didn't know about this one.

Blue - Beyonce
Proof that no matter the question, the answer is "Beyonce."

Kooks - David Bowie
David had a pretty great philosophy of parenting: "If the homework brings you down, we'll throw it in the fire and go downtown."

Dear Theodosa - Lin Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr.
Check out the cover by Ben Folds and Regina Spektor. Looks like Ben Fold is kicking butt in the parent/songwriter genre.

The Mother - Brandi Carlile
This woman. My god. She wrote this song and "The Joke's on Them"? I think I could handle, like, 0.1% of her writing talent. That subtitle line is from this song, by the way. There's a tremendous sacrifice in parenting  — you give up so much — and this song captures it so perfectly, along with the joy that sacrifice brings.

So I guess there are some pretty great songs about parenting. Honestly, though, I'm not sure they capture the full range of emotions we have around parenting. All of these songs are so sweet! I mean, obviously — you don't want your kid's legacy to include a hit pop song about their most epic temper tantrum. Apparently for that, I think we have to look to literature, like Billy Collin's hilarious poem "The Lanyard." A note to poetry haters: read this poem anyway.

And to anyone reading this: if you have a favorite song about parenting I missed here, let me know in the comments.

Love,
Mike