Music

My both kids, daughter and nephew, are sensitive to sounds, and specifically to music. Their favourite music is an important part of their life. They can listen one song endlessly. They would not go out without a player with selected playlist loaded into its memory. And vice versa: when they hear music they don’t like, they suffer (truly, physically).

Because I perceive it differently, I often don’t understand their feelings. It can be really strange. For instance, a musical channel on our TV has kind of retro time when it plays something from 90s etc. Today there was that old song, “I’m blue, da-ba-dee da-ba-dye” – for me it’s fun, but my daughter said: “It’s disgusting! It’s the worst song ever, that could be used to torture me!” And I really don’t understand why? What does she hear in it? For me the sound is absolutely normal. Then, she hates songs playing in McDonalds, most of other cafes and shopping centers, though these are quite neutral.

My nephew is similar, but in his own manner. He likes listening to music while driving, but each time it becomes a problem. He cannot just relax and leave it to the player. He is zapping endlessly, like TV channels, unable to stop on something (even though it’s his own player and his selected list of songs). We get irritated and ask him to stop: Hey, this one is good enough! Just stop! We even tried to bet how long he could stay without switching songs… it was short! Partly it’s because he is shy about his musical tastes, thinking that we will judge him.

The most strange case was one of these days in a shopping center. Me and both kids were buying some shoes. We just left shoe department, my nephew carrying bags. And all of a sudden he dropped the bags at my feet and rushed away, running on a high speed, without explanation! I did not know what to think. I supposed he may have spotted some guy he did not want to talk to… something like that. My and my daughter moved on, and soon the boy called me on the phone, found us and joined us again. When I asked what had happened, the answer was: “It was that song! When it started, I had to run away somewhere I could not hear it.” As for me, I did not even notice what it was – some usual background music, nothing special. Maybe it’s a luck that I am not so sensitive, but it makes harder to understand the kids.