April 11, 2025

38 thoughts on “Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Weekend Jukebox And Open Thread”

  2. Personally, I’m a little concerned about all the anchor babies we’re dropping. I mean, that’s like 4 more mouths for our job creators to pay welfare tax for. Or something. 🙂Report

    1. The Amy Grant/Sandi Patti argument was in full swing when I was a kid. Amy Grant was too worldly. She wore jeans. She gave this “you could get to 2nd base with her” vibe. Then she “crossed over without taking the cross over”.

      Then Sandi Patti got divorced. Hoooo doggies. That pretty much had to settle it right there.

      Now we look back and say “seriously? that was a thing?”Report

      1. Going off on a tangent, now, I had a friend who at about 18 was born again and then went to Trevecca. One day soon after being baptized she held a party to burn all of her secular music (mostly vinyl and CDs, though some tapes — this was around 1995 or 1996). To this day I find this fascinating.

        After the burning, she listened only to DC Talk (one of whom I knew as a kid), Newsboys, and the like. I found it impossible to ride with her in her car for this reason. As Hank Hill said of Christian rock, “Can’t you see you’re not making Christianity better? You’re just making rock n’ roll worse!”Report

        2. The fact that Christian Rock is generally so very *BAD* is kind of weird.

          Now there is a great deal of very good Christian *MUSIC* out there… but it’s going to have a Country/Western or Gospel flavor rather than Rock and Roll.

          Michael W. Smith notwithstanding.Report

          1. There are some rock artists who have played with “Christian” tropes or imagery, but that are not themselves “Christian rock” by any stretch – I am thinking of that whole line that runs from the Velvets’ “Jesus” through Spacemen 3’s “Lord Can You Hear Me” and Spiritualized* etc., where they are using the tropes to 1.) borrow some of the emotional power/yearning of gospel and 2.) get some frisson from rubbing those gospel-type tropes up against their other more decadent, worldly themes.

            Although I’d make an argument for early U2 as using Christian themes and imagery in a wholly sincere way. I remember they used to sell their records in the Christian bookstore, next to Stryper and Petra.

            *One of the many many Spacemen/JAMC descendants, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, has a great song on their first record (which is solid) called “White Palms”. On first blush, it sounds like yet another JAMC-type effort to get a rise out of the religious, but I personally think the song’s meant to be sincere – a lament by the prodigal son, simultaneously desperate (to the point that he “dares” Jesus to come back) for his father’s rescue, and terrified that his father will find out what a mess he’s made of things.

            It has this great little acoustic coda, “I wouldn’t come back, if I’d have been Jesus…I’m the kind of guy who leaves the scene of a crime.”Report

            1. Black Sabbath had a number of Christian songs (or, at least, songs that made use of non-ironic Christian imagery)… there were quite a few “metal” bands there for a while that sang songs processing their religious upbringings in not-entirely-negative terms.

              They weren’t embraced by the community, though.Report

          2. There are a few, although not many, exceptions to the rule. Daniel Amos was well respected, if little known, in their day. Of course the consequence of their being good was that most Christians were pretty uncomfortable with their music. The 77s also had some good stuff during the brief time I was paying attention (although the lyrics to Renaissance Man make me want to lobotomize them without being particularly gentle about it.Report

              1. I don’t really distinguish. If you looked at my iPod, the first thing you’d notice after the fact that it’s prehistoric is that it mixes classical and popular music more or less randomly.Report

          5. “The fact that Christian Rock is generally so very *BAD* is kind of weird.”

            maybe it’s a brain drain sort of thing? you can have a religious lifestyle and still not have to play in totally crap bands.

            oddly (or not), there are a handful of explicitly satanic bands that are good, despite (or because of) their focus on either a general antinomian, aesthetic satanism or actual religious satanism. it’s a different kind of thing, i think, since they are already pre-ghettoized from the get-go (by intent) and can then focus on rocking the party/”rocking the party” as it were. they don’t have to satisfy a need for a rigid set of messages, having a lot more freedom of form (and fairly incomprehensible vocals).Report

  4. Here’s my best advice. When someone wants to give you a gift and asks what you’d like for the baby, ask them to buy toddler-size clothes. Everybody and their Facebook friends will want to give you baby clothes, until you don’t have any room for them all, and then at age one or so your kid will suddenly grow out of everything, and you’ll be left with a walk-in closet full of stuff s/he can’t fit into, and you’re going to have to buy all the new stuff–that s/he’ll grow out of in about six seconds flat–all by yourself.Report

    1. When the first baby in our circle was born, Maribou and I went out and found Hawaiian shirts for ages 0-3 months, 3-6, 6-12, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. All the same pattern.

      We wanted the boy to ask “why am I wearing the same shirt?” at some point when he’s looking through the photo album.Report

  7. Get one of those slings you can wrap around your torso and carry the baby. It worked wonders for quieting collicky babes and allowed me to actually do stuff that required moving around and using my hands. Plus, it was perfect for nursing anywhere since the sling provided great coverage.Report

  8. At least during the first year, remember that when there’s a choice between sleeping or some other optional activity (eg, the game-of-the-year on Monday Night Football, or sex), there’s no shame in choosing sleep. A friend who is an ex-Marine says that basic training is excellent preparation for parenthood: “In both situations, there’s no telling when you’ll get to sleep again, so sleep whenever the opportunity presents itself.”

    For later on in childhood, the most encouraging words I heard were from a psychologist: “All of our professional experience suggests that if you worry about whether you’re a terrible parent and messing your kid up for life, the chances are very good that you’re not.”Report

  9. Most important thing I figured out when being a stay-at-home father with a wife that worked overnights for seven days at a time: enforce the 20-minute-rule when it comes to a crying baby. Obviously, I gave my boy a few months, but after awhile, I required him to cry in his crib for 20-minutes before I’d make sure he was okay. If he could cry for that long, I assumed something was wrong. He often cried himself out though. It was a brutal experience – my daughter was mad at me for this and often wanted to check on him – but after a few weeks, I could put him to bed awake and he’d fall asleep on his own.Report

  12. somewhat more on topic, a great gift for people having a kid is a sleep sheep. even if the kid doesn’t like it – it terrified my son as a baby and largely distracts him as a toddler – the parents can get some use out of it. and the babies who do like them tend to be really into it.Report

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