My "Wonderful" first Father/Daughter MMJ moment.

[Clarkwork]

My wife and I have been Jacket fans for years. We've had 3 kids since becoming fans. Almost seems like we have one every time they put an album out! 

But all of them hear mmj constantly and always seem to love it. My oldest is 6 and he actually requests to hear Victory Dance right now. I just hope they don't lose the great musical taste we have given them :)

[DejaView2011]

I love this thread!

For me its more my friends and family that generally don't really get into MMJ. I brought one of my friends with me to the Chicago Auditorium show last night. After hearing my friend for a few weeks say that "Holdin on to Black Metal" was kinda lame, I caught him singing along to the song at the show.
When we were driving home he asked to put "Holdin on to Black Metal" on in the car and confessed the song won him over! lol
MMJ strikes again! haha

CHIMMFAN

Way to go!!!! One more down.  ;D

[CTdeadhead]

Since my daughter was a baby, I always played music around the house.  When she was 9 in 05 I took her to see Motley Crue, I know some may think its raunchy for a 9 yo but she grew up listening to them and loved the tunes by 9, and I took her out in a snow storm to see the Crue.  Also took her to see Pearl Jam.

In 2008 I took her up to BOA to see MMJ.  It was a great event, booked a hotel near the venue went out to eat, then saw the band in a middle of the worst storm ever!  She loved every second and new every song.  The best part was that I got her a poster, the lady in the stand gave her a garbage bag and a rubber band.  She held it thru the rain and preserved it perfectly back to the room.  Came back early the next am and was F-ing great, we both had a blast a memory forever!

[bunk_moreland]

This thread is the balls!

You see, I decided just within the last week or so that the next time I see MMJ (which will be 8/7 in Indianapolis), I will be taking my 15 year old son with me.  This will be his first concert of any type.

I have two sons, 15 and 9.  I was married for 9 years and have been divorced for almost as long.  Almost a year ago my ex-wife moved to Florida for work and I was pretty much devastated at the prospect of not seeing my boys every weekend.  This time last year I was dreading it and trying to soak up as much meaning and import as possible from every moment I spent with the boys, while also trying to decide if I needed to follow them down there, and if so, how soon would I be able to afford to uproot and start over?

Anyway, it turned out to be a much easier situation than I ever expected.  The boys have flown up here for every school holiday and I went down there for their Spring Break week.  Tomorrow I'm picking them up at the airport and they'll be staying with me until school starts.  Our time together has been more concentrated, and in between visits we talk on the phone and skype and even chat on xbox live while we're playing games. 

One of the biggest things we share now is music.  Every couple of months I put together a care package with some goodies, maybe a couple of books or a dvd, and always a few mix cds.   Both kids have always at least tolerated me blasting MMJ in the car, but the older one is becoming quite a fan.  He knows that I'm going to the show, but I think he assumes I'm going with a friend.  I'm looking forward to the road trip up there and the quality time in the car with him, but I really can't wait to see him during the show.  I probably will miss a lot of what's going on onstage because I'll be so focused on his reaction.  I really think I'll finally get to see what I look like when I get that stupid grin on my face that won't go away until the second or third song of the set.  I'm looking forward to this show in a completely different way than I've ever anticipated a My Morning Jacket show.

[sweatboard]

MMJ = Power

Bringing Beauty To A Town Near You.

[DejaView2011]

This thread is the balls!

You see, I decided just within the last week or so that the next time I see MMJ (which will be 8/7 in Indianapolis), I will be taking my 15 year old son with me.  This will be his first concert of any type.

I have two sons, 15 and 9.  I was married for 9 years and have been divorced for almost as long.  Almost a year ago my ex-wife moved to Florida for work and I was pretty much devastated at the prospect of not seeing my boys every weekend.  This time last year I was dreading it and trying to soak up as much meaning and import as possible from every moment I spent with the boys, while also trying to decide if I needed to follow them down there, and if so, how soon would I be able to afford to uproot and start over?

Anyway, it turned out to be a much easier situation than I ever expected.  The boys have flown up here for every school holiday and I went down there for their Spring Break week.  Tomorrow I'm picking them up at the airport and they'll be staying with me until school starts.  Our time together has been more concentrated, and in between visits we talk on the phone and skype and even chat on xbox live while we're playing games. 

One of the biggest things we share now is music.  Every couple of months I put together a care package with some goodies, maybe a couple of books or a dvd, and always a few mix cds.   Both kids have always at least tolerated me blasting MMJ in the car, but the older one is becoming quite a fan.  He knows that I'm going to the show, but I think he assumes I'm going with a friend.  I'm looking forward to the road trip up there and the quality time in the car with him, but I really can't wait to see him during the show.  I probably will miss a lot of what's going on onstage because I'll be so focused on his reaction.  I really think I'll finally get to see what I look like when I get that stupid grin on my face that won't go away until the second or third song of the set.  I'm looking forward to this show in a completely different way than I've ever anticipated a My Morning Jacket show.

AWESOME! AWESOME! !!AWESOME! !! You have to deal with our same situation! Our daughters Mom lives in Florida so we too have to bridge the distance in as many ways as possible.  At least your ex sounds reasonable. We have the evil, veangeful, lying, troublemaking ex from HELL! She stops at nothing to interfere with everything we do. No music we buy her is allowed, no books(???), no DVDs nor is she allowed to even say our names. Its so unhealthy and unfair to our 16 year old who's growing up but has a messed up mother trying to keep her 11 forever. She even takes the clothes we buy her, wears them and keeps em. Its disgusting how she uses our daughter as a tool or sees her as "collateral damage " in her quest for her pound of flesh. She even ruined Christmas 2 years ago by sequestering our daughter away through the holiday.
        Keep doing what you're doing. One day this will all have such significance for them and you in retrospect.  I'm so happy for you that you get to share these things without being Dad-Blocked. This system doesn't really extend much to men in a household split. They just assume the woman to be a better parent and judge accordingly to preconceived notions. Because of that, our daughter lives in hell 85% of her life, and we're helpless to change that. Congrats on being an incredible dad!,(the first shoe I took my daughter to was Cruel too! Lol. We couldn't get her to stop saying "F*ck yeah!!!!" For weeks!! )

[ChiefOKONO]

awww what a great story! thank you for sharing it!

[tdb810]

Bunk, that is just an awesome story! I hope that you have the best show ever! And cheers to you for making the most out of what is truly a heart-wrenching situation!  Best wishes!   

[bunk_moreland]

Thanks guys.  It's amazing how much encouragement one can gather from a message board like this.  Before I made that post a couple of days ago I had second thoughts because I was thinking "nobody cares about all this personal history garbage."

I've blogged a little about my kids and the move last year.  If you have absolutely nothing better to do, check it out: http://john15vine.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/becoming-real.html
There's also a ton of mmj stuff on my blog and some other randomness that's mildly amusing, again, if you have nothing better to do than peruse a stranger's online musings.

Dejaview, I can't believe how similar our situations are.  Except yours is way suckier.  Hang in there bro.

[CTdeadhead]

I did get divorced two years ago and my kid is up in CT while I relocated to NC.  Its hard but she's 16 now and understands.  The fact that she wasn't small made it a lot easier to decide to go, but I go up every couple months lately, but at her age, she's got so much going on, not much time for me anymore anyway.  Kudos to you guys, I know the whole thing is hard on kids, but in many ways its a lot harder for the parents. 

[blucas]

You guys are all awesome and as a parent of ten year old twins, I love hearing the stories! 

[DejaView2011]

I did get divorced two years ago and my kid is up in CT while I relocated to NC.  Its hard but she's 16 now and understands.  The fact that she wasn't small made it a lot easier to decide to go, but I go up every couple months lately, but at her age, she's got so much going on, not much time for me anymore anyway.  Kudos to you guys, I know the whole thing is hard on kids, but in many ways its a lot harder for the parents.

You're right. Its hard on everybody. Seperation/Divorce is a concept most children can't truly grasp. Sometimes I'm grateful for my daughters beautiful naivety and wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. Children are all too often used as pawns in divorces and its disgusting because all our senses of stability are developed during those early formative years and lifelong struggles with insecurity, fear of instability and even worse, the ability to learn how to "cope and tuck it all away" become ingrained in their psyches. Our situation is indeed ducky beyond what I could ever go into here. But what ill never understand is how the ex wife who did NOTHING for over 15 years of a 25 year marriage gets awarded 8,000.00 a month in alimony, yet still feels the need to continue to ruin everyone's lives. Everyone in "the system" uses the term " in the child's best interest" yet the dollar is always the real priority and their words are bullshit. After 5 years of this faulty system continually making the wrong decisions on our daughters behalf(because we're a same sex household) I've lost all faith in our judicial system. They basically handed our baby to the dingo and even tho the school, counselors, teachers, her friends parents and her therapist all say her mother is unfit and destroying her mind and sense of trusting adults, things just remain the same. Why? Because being gay automatically makes us pedophiliacs and unfit primary parents. Regardless of what our daughter and anyone else says. But Our home is more positive and functional than most "normal" families I see. But for some reason they remain blind....... and we're the monsters. Sorry for venting. 5 years of crying and a nervous breakdown stay with you for a long time. But moving to VA from FL and the slower, sweeter life here has helped us heal. This is why "Wonderful" has such significance. It took a long time to get here, and it wasn't easy. But everyday the distance from that evil human being and the kindness of our new community makes it better. I can hear myself think now. Not just crying.

[searchinbig]

Got to take my 17 year old daughter to T5. She loved it. Her first major concert. We even got to meet forum peeps at the pre show meet up, sponsored by the ever gracious Miss Pennylane.

Best was she said "Dad it was great and I knew all the songs"

I love my kids and family, they are my life.  :)

[DejaView2011]

Got to take my 17 year old daughter to T5. She loved it. Her first major concert. We even got to meet forum peeps at the pre show meet up, sponsored by the ever gracious Miss Pennylane.

Best was she said "Dad it was great and I knew all the songs"

I love my kids and family, they are my life.  :)

Reading this post truly gave my day a beautiful start. Kudos to you friend. There should be many more like you in this world. Dads rule!

[bunk_moreland]

This is my favorite thread ever.

[DejaView2011]

This is my favorite thread ever.

loving it too!! Oh happy day! My daughter asked if we could watch OKONOKOS tonight!, (it could have something to do with the pair of sneakers she's suddenly "needing" tho. Lol)

[WhereILived]

This made my night.

Why am I tearing up...?

[bunk_moreland]

Great time was had by all.  The only drawback is that any concert experience after this might be a disappointment for Nate.  He needs to understand that you don't always get to be on the rail for your favorite band :D

[smhoffmann02]

No question - this thread is in my top 10.    ::)

My hubby doesn't "get" my Jacket fever and how it has had such a profound effect on me, has changed me as a person, and continues to shape my perspective on, well, life.  So, it truly warms my heart to know that I can connect in this way with the fine forum folks who truly understand the meaning.

I believe if there's anything that can break barriers and bring people together, it's music.  And MMJ is making this happen every day.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful stories - it made my day.

[MrB]

I think American Dad had it backwards, cuz there are so many of us dad's getting our kids hooked on MMJ. I was able to hook two of my son's, now 19 and 25(who were with me at Indy), still working on my third son(He's 22!)