I am an EDM Mom and I am raising a Flower Child

What’s happening my super galactic space cadets?  Today, while we navigate through the electric wiring of my mind, I want to journey on over to an area of such sweetness that sends signals of so much love, straight to my heart.  You know that feeling of self-discovery when you realize you have somehow found yourself in Electronic Dance Music?  Or that gratifying feeling that you cannot help but take pride in when you watch someone you’ve introduced to EDM, find themselves?  Those two discoveries are fucking amazing to achieve.  The ultimate discovery to witness, though, is watching your mini blossom into a cadet right before your eyes.  This one is for all my rave parents who are raising the next generation of Kandi kids.

Be you, little one, and I will always be alright with that.

I’m not really sure when it happened, but it happened.  Our mini, Kira, is freshly 9.  When she was 5, I would have put money on her turning into the preppy cheerleader type, who listened to Taylor Swift and walked around with her dog in a purse.  I was alright with that.  Be you, little one, and I will always be alright with that.  Then something started to change about her during the next 4 years.

Instead of asking me to stream a variety of Disney artists on Pandora, she started asking me to put on What So Not.  The way she would twirl through the living room, stop and jump to every drop, indicated something new.  She was feeling the flow of music go through her.  Unknowingly to her, the bass was controlling her body and she was feeling it.  It wasn’t long after that, her love for Zeds Dead formed.  Laundry time became her excuse to blast Zeds Dead through her dad’s computer speakers.

Kira is in the fourth grade.  When she comes home from school, I cannot help but geek out on the inside when she throws on some Griz to ease her mind during her math homework experience (have you all had the introduction to common core math?  It’s an asshole).  If The Chainsmokers come on in her presence, don’t you dare hit skip, she won’t tolerate that shit.  She even tried to school me the other day on who Marshmello was like I didn’t know.  He seems to be her new favorite.

The friends who become family.  The magic.

She always knew Mom and Dad went to festivals.  When we would leave, we would send her off with family to have a good little time of her own.  Calling her twice a day, she seemed to busy too talk to me because she was the one having too much fun.  She is now realizing what exactly is happening on the other side of the phone, though.  The lights.  The music.  The art.  The dancing.  The cute outfits.  The friends who become family.  The magic.  She even asked if she could go to Camp Bisco on a day pass this past summer for her birthday since it falls in the same week and we only live 20 minutes from Montage Mountain.  It didn’t happen for her this year but I cannot wait for the day that we feel she is mature enough to be part of the crowd at her first music festival experience.

Being an EDM mom is as warm and fuzzy as a pair of fluffies.  However, it does come with much criticism from the outside world.  The stereotypes that come along with our scene, leave EDM parents finding themselves having to stick up for their ability to parent.  It’s not something I really want to bring up because it’s just bad vibes and honestly it just pisses me off because we are some of the best parents we know, but it is a topic that shouldn’t be ignored.

Sure, some of us have dreads in our hair.  Kandi up our arms.  We dress in psychedelic and bold colors during the on and off seasons.  We enjoy electronic music in the deepest sense and we dance …. holy shit do we dance.  We give light shows and help our friends pick their faces up off the floor, that is, if we haven’t lost our own.  We trade in romantic getaways for a few days of camp life at our do not miss festivals of the year.  We are full of love and understanding.  An awakening form of acceptance that our children will only blossom from.

We, much like many other rave parents, are raising our daughter in a home smothered by love.  She is safe here.  She is well cared for here.  She is above all here.  Her life is structured and secured.  She is full of so much happiness with an enormous appreciation for us.  She recognizes we are not the same as most of the other parents and she couldn’t be more proud.  Her friends dig us and we dig that.

man …. that’s fucking success

At 9, we have already begun to teach her that it is important to bring your dreams to life and it’s okay to explore whatever attracts you.  Her dad is an aspiring producer, without your typical 9-5 business man job and he is always getting shit for that.  The way she brags about how her daddy makes electronic music and insists everyone listen to a track of his (usually the tracks she laid down vocals on), man …. that’s fucking success in the most beautiful of ways.  He may not be Bassnectar, but in her eyes, he is so much better than him.  He may not have that 9-5, but to her, she couldn’t be more proud of who he is and what he does.

I have a 12-hour work day.  It pays the bills and gives us the best health care coverage around.  On my downtime, I write for an Electronic Dance Music website – EDM Daycare.  I am also further following my passion for writing by writing a book.  That’s right.  A fucking book.  Maybe I will become published one day like my dad.  We cook, serve and enjoy a home cooked meal nightly as a family, followed by bath time and story time.  We have a beautiful home that we maintain well.  We run around town weekly to get our daughter back and forth to dance class and girl scouts after home work is correctly completed.  She is thinking about adding basketball to the routine, do it up little one, well round yourself.  I found a man 11 years ago that I had decided to have a family with.  He, alongside me, is teaching our daughter what love, friendship, and family should be.  So fuck adultier adults who think they are better than us because we eat, sleep, breathe EDM.  We know we are doing a standup job because it shows through our daughter.

EDM parents may not have the money to hit up every festival of the season on their wish list because we do have children to support and a household to maintain, but that makes every experience we do have, that much more lit.   We are expecting a new mini this January (we thank Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival 2016 for this new beginning) but we won’t let that stop us from spinning our orbits and hoops, producing music that tells our story, letting the lights blind us, and losing our shit to the filthiest drops we can feed our ears.

Keep creating life my fellow space cadets, keep showing the next generation what it means to be free.  Christmas is around the corner and I heard Santa was bringing Kira a LED Glove set.  Maybe she can hang them up next to her hoop.  Shouts to all my rave parents who know the struggle of balancing our two lives, doing it responsibly, staying sexy and keeping it classy.  I salute you.