What time is it?

I want to share with you something that my husband, daughter and I do. It may sound strange but it brings an element of joy into our lives and who knows? You might get some joy out of it too!

Occasionally my family breaks out into what appears to be spontaneous dance. It’s not though. Let me tell you the story.

Many moons ago we got very behind on laundry due to illness and you know, life. Anyway there was a ton of clothes that needed done. So we set aside a sat to just stay home and bust them all out. My husband set an alarm on his phone to go off every 40 minutes so we didn’t waste any time between loads. Good plan, I know! Anyway, he chose one of those preset ringtones for the alarm. I guess it would be called ‘electro’. I commented that it made me want to dance. Well my daughter hears it go off a coupe of times (she’s cleaning her room) and comes in to ask what that music was for. I said, “Dance Time” and immediately the alarm goes off. Perfect timing. So we all look at each, start laughing and begin dancing. For the rest of the day every time the alarm went off we would all stop what we were doing and start dancing. It was fun.

Alarms pretty much rule our day. The first one goes off at 5:30 am and the last one goes off at 9pm. 9 pm during the school year is my daughter’s bed time. The alarm goes off to tell us it is time for bed (in case alarms are an unfamiliar concept to you). After Laundry Day my husband changed the 9pm alarm to that jazzy little electro number. And for the past 8 months we always stop what we are doing, dance and laugh at each other looking so goofy. We sometimes get looks when we are out and about when a stranger’s phone with the same ringtone goes off. Those are the times that we look like we are breaking out into spontaneous dance. And it is fun.

Just plain fun. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Even though it is at the same time every night there is usually something different going on and it always catches us by surprise. A few times it has helped us deescalate a fight because no matter how upset you are you still dance. And have a little fun. Who couldn’t use a little more fun in their lives?