Life Lessons.

I've learnt a few 'life' lessons this week. They were eye-opening and they were things my mother couldn't have told me because they were out of her realm of experience but, as they're quite important I feel I should pass them on.

Life Lesson #1 - One day your young son or daughter may come to you with a form from school. It will be about learning a musical instrument - specifically percussion - and being in the school band. Sign that form at your own risk. There will be much begging and pleading from your apparently musically gifted progeny but you should stop and think about the ramifications before putting pen to paper. Learning percussion can bring a whole world of auditory pain to a family and your neighbours (unless you have a sound-proof room).

Life Lesson #2 - If you do happen to weaken under the weight of parental guilt and off-spring nagging, DO NOT under any circumstances buy them a drum kit. DO NOT allow any well-meaning (and slightly sadistic) relative to give them a drum kit. DO NOT hire a drum kit. Make your house a drum kit-free zone. Iven and I made the grave error of allowing Luke to buy his own kit and we even foolishly contributed to the cost. LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKE!!

Life Lesson #3 - If you have ignored Life Lessons #1 and 2 you will inevitably be forced to confront this one. If your son is a percussionist and owns a drum kit he WILL become a member of a rock band. And because you own a drum kit and it is not easily transportable like guitars and amps, your home WILL become the official practice venue for said rock band. And if you thought you were unpopular with your neighbours before, you will soon reach a state of unpopularity you never thought possible. The rock band will play cover versions of AC-DC hits at decibels high enough to be mistaken for minor earth-tremors and may even cause Tsunami alerts to be issued. There will be very limited amounts of musical talent in the group with the exception of your child, who is an obvious musical genius.

Life Lesson #4 - We only get our kids for a short time. Sometimes it feels like forever when they're going through a particularly unpleasant phase (like the artistic phase when they painted their cots with a poo-collage, or the literary phase when they cried every day before school because they couldn't read their word list). But all too soon they're making their own decisions, running their own lives and being what we always dreamed for them - independent, functional, contributing members of society who we're enormously proud of. And then we wonder where all the time went.

But being that today was the first practice session of Luke's rock band I'm really looking forward to the time I can look back fondly on his musical phase.