Matt Smallbone

The Smallbone family were at a Super Bowl party on Sunday when I realized that our ‘Prodigal Ukulele’ was sitting on the top shelf beside the host’s television. (As a literary footnote it must be noted that the word prodigal actually means ‘wasteful’ rather than ‘missing’).

This is not just a broken child’s toy; rather this is my four-year old son’s pride and joy. It had been missing in action for over 12-months and it was a joyful reunion to say the least. This is the ‘electric guitar’ that Isaac learnt to rock on. It had found its way home.

So, it made sense that we should go to Boomer’s Music as a father son outing and get some new strings for the ukulele.

Isaac is passionate about music… but he is mostly passionate about U2. He would watch U2 concerts on DVD and play along with them all day if we allowed him. His favorite concert (this week) is the Vertigo Tour that he received for Christmas from Auntie Katie.

He loves nothing more than to play the entire show twice in a row. The first time through the set, he plays guitar and the second time he is the drummer. His drum kit is a collection of toys that he arranges carefully around the stool that he used to stand on to go to the bathroom. He also lines up about 6-guitars (which include a hobby horse, wooden spoon and a baseball bat) on the couch.

Anyway, as we walked into the music shop, the first thing he says is,

“Daddy, that looks like The Edge’s pointy (Gibson Thunderbird) guitar”.

The clerk smiled. And he quickly followed with,

“Ohhh daddy. That is Larry Mullen Junior’s drum kit”.

The clerk laughed.

One time we were in New York City with my old band Alabaster Box and we stumbled upon Bono having a photo shoot in Central Park. My mate Justin Nace (now drummer for the Sidewalk Prophets) snagged this shot on his tip-toes over the top of an Eastern European soccer team.

It was clutch.

As we left, Isaac (then 2) said, ‘Where’s Yarry… Where’s Yarry Murrin’.

He wanted to meet the drummer!

Anyway… all of this to say, the owner of the music store thought Isaac was a legend and let him play the practice drum sets in the store. Isaac counted to four while tapping the sticks above his head… and he was off.

It brought me so much joy to see the pleasure that Isaac experienced hitting the skins. My heart felt like it would burst. He was at home.

He now wants nothing more than a drum set of his own… but there are some problems with this.

1. We live in a 1500 square foot house
2. I worry that if we get him a ‘real’ drum kit now, he will take it for granted when he is older and not be interested in music (I got my first bass at 13 years old after playing a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar with 2-strings removed from it for a year).
3. His birthday is not until September. (We don’t want to create an environment for him where he gets whatever he wants whenever he wants).

Ultimately we feel that one of the most important things that we can give our children is to teach them how to ‘delay gratification’. However, drumming is something that brings him great happiness. I feel like God is pleased when he drums.

So… we don’t know what to do.

Should we:

• buy the drum kit now?

• wait til he’s a bit older?

• wait til his birthday?

It feels like this is a really important parental decision for us to get right and I just don’t know the best way forward.

Does anyone have any advice for a novice parent like myself??

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:05 am and is filed under Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.