Mama Nous writes youngsters’s lullabies and easy songs that acknowledge common emotional truths and assist individuals course of their emotions. Youngsters love them, however so do adults.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
We be taught sure emotional truths via expertise. We may be scared, however nonetheless be OK. We will construct resilience. We will let go of issues. These classes can take a lifetime to be taught. However what if we may be taught them at age 3 in a lullaby? One songwriter is creating music identical to this, and, as Deena Prichep experiences, it isn’t simply youngsters who’re listening.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: Michelle Barrow had her twins throughout the peak of the pandemic, and as quickly as they had been born, she began singing to them.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MY BODY IS MY HOME”)
MICHELLE BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) My physique is an effective physique, and it is the one one I will ever know. So I deal with it like a pal as a result of my physique is my residence.
PRICHEP: Barrow began posting these songs on TikTok and Instagram beneath the identify Mama Nous. That is N-O-U-S, just like the French phrase for us. The melodies are candy and easy, however the concepts are fairly massive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BULLY BRAIN”)
BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) Typically my mind’s a bully. Typically it says actually imply issues. Typically about myself, typically someone else, however my mind do not know every thing.
Clearly, it’s important to watch out to border your message in a method that makes it obtainable and acceptable for youths. However they’ll actually deal with some actually massive subjects, and so they need to be speaking about and exploring actually massive subjects.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BULLY BRAIN”)
BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) I’m not my ideas, and I select to take heed to my coronary heart.
PRICHEP: Barrow data out of her residence studio and has by no means given a Mama Nous live performance, except you depend her youngsters’ preschool, however she’s reached hundreds of thousands via social media. Signe Hawley Murray’s household listens to Mama Nous songs each morning.
SIGNE HAWLEY MURRAY: The one which bought us hooked was “Worrying Has By no means Modified A Factor.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WORRYING HAS NEVER CHANGED A THING”)
BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) Worrying has by no means modified a factor. And so all that I can do is attempt to deliver a way of regular calm until I do know what is going on on, ‘trigger worrying has by no means modified a factor.
PRICHEP: Hawley Murray says it is given their 6-year-old the language to know emotions about massive adjustments, like beginning kindergarten. That helps her regulate not solely herself, however the entire household.
HAWLEY MURRAY: My daughter one time, like, stopped me within the automotive and was like, Mama – after all I used to be, like, dashing out the door – and was like, Mama, worrying and dashing is not going to alter a factor. And I rotated and I began laughing, ‘trigger I used to be like, oh, my gosh, it is so true.
PRICHEP: Mama Nous’ posts do not simply resonate with youngsters. They’re stuffed with feedback from adults who speak about how a lot these youngsters’s songs have helped them course of their very own feelings.
JEFF CERIA: What I used to be taught was to stuff it down – you realize, to disregard it or to simply recover from.
PRICHEP: Jeff Ceria would not even have younger youngsters, however he says listening to these songs has helped him form of reparent himself.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHISPERING HEART”)
BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) At the hours of darkness, you may take heed to your whispering coronary heart. Shut your eyes, take note of your physique.
Sooner or later, we hit a sure age the place we determine that we had been – are alleged to have all of it discovered. And I simply do not ever suppose that that is true. I believe we’re all fumbling and figuring it out as we go alongside.
PRICHEP: Via Mama Nous, Michelle Barrow hopes that listening to these messages, particularly sung to a catchy tune, will help individuals determine issues out and develop as much as be their greatest, loving selves at any age.
For NPR Information, I am Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BULLY BRAIN”)
BARROW: (As Mama Nous, singing) Typically my mind’s a bully. Typically it says actually imply issues. Typically about myself, typically someone else, however…
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