The Family That Sings Together….Uses a Karaoke Machine

The Karaoke machine we bought the kids two years ago was sitting in the corner, collecting dust and cob webs with every passing day. I heard once that these machines were great for family fun and “bonding”, but somehow that never happened in our home. I began to think perhaps is was a waste of money until one night when I saw a video of another family having a great time with their Karaoke machine. I thought, “If they can do it, why can’t we?”, and I set off to devise a plan.

A waited for a night when I knew everyone would be home, making sure there was nothing on TV to occupy the family’s attention. A few hours after dinner, without saying a word, I went to the kitchen and started preparing popcorn. As the aroma wafted through the house, one by one they started to appear. “Who’s making popcorn? Can we have some?” I told my son to go to the family room and pop in a CD while my wife and daughters grabbed some drinks.

We sat munching on popcorn and listening to the music, and after a few minutes I started cracking a few jokes. That in turn, inspired funny stories and comments all around the room. When I sensed everyone was loosened up I grabbed the TV remote, pretending it was a microphone, and began lip syncing with the music. One by they joined me; first my youngest daughter, then my other two kids, and finally my wife. Suddenly one of them got up, wandered over to the karaoke machine and turned it on. One thing led to another and before long all the dust and cobwebs were gone( we have since evolved into a 2.0 singing family and download karaoke music onto our computers).

We were singing along with hip-hop, metal, pop, big band, and 50’s doo wop. Even my wife who is normally resistant to being goofy, finally broke down and picked up the mic. The cat and dog were getting into it too, chasing each other around the room howling and caterwauling. It was a sight and sound to behold.

Well, we sang, danced, laughed and smiled until we couldn’t any longer. We finally collapsed in fatigue and sat around the room with our tongues hanging out. A few minutes later my wife turned to me and said, “We need to do this again.” You know something? She was right. Everything I’d heard about the karaoke machine was true after all. It just needed a little coaxing.