So this morning 6yo awoke, as he usually does, at 6am (mercifully he has moved beyond 5am) and came to our room seeking someone to turn on the TV, as it was a weekend and, well that’s just part of the way we make weekends special in our house: TV before breakfast (no, really – that IS special here).

I groggily wandered downstairs, thankful that it was 6am and not 5, turned on the TV, quickly changed the channel from whatever we’d forgotten to change if from the previous night, then suddenly remembered: he had been banned from TV for being such an unrepentant horror the entire previous day, culminating in a 20-minute screaming session prior to sleep.

Being the stubborn mule that I am, I turned off the TV and reminded him that he was banned and that he would need to return to his bedroom. This, of course, was greeted with indignation that I “couldn’t do that”, but of course I could and I did and (thankfully) he went back to his bedroom with the promise that if he spent 10 minutes in his bedroom playing nicely, he could watch whichever younger-child shows his younger siblings chose to watch (ie. no Spider-man, no Ninja Turtles and no LEGO Chima).

Five minutes later, as his siblings awoke and wandered downstairs to watch some suitably terrible toddler TV, 6yo began to play the blues in his room on his harmonica.

Now, I know what you’re thinking “6 year olds cannot play the blues” and to an extent you’re right – he has no training, he is not a musical prodigy and this is probably just a parent hearing their child be wonderful rather than annoying (as I’m sure the neighbours saw it), but I have never heard a harmonica played with such raw sadness and so little melody. It was absolutely pure blues and I loved every minute of it (sorry, neighbours).

Suffice to say that after 5 minutes, 6yo was allowed to go and watch toddler shows with his siblings and I am very glad that he asked Santa for a harmonica a couple of years ago. Oh and that Santa built him a pretty bloody good harmonica too (Hohner Special 20 in the key of C).

Perhaps it’s time for some lessons…

— IEK