Dance Party With the Kids

I’m such a terrible dancer. In my younger years, while attending high school, I would go to school dances, but would just kind of hang out with friends. I wouldn’t dance too much. I knew then I wasn’t very good at it, so I did what I could to not embarrass myself by it. Fast forward many years and my dancing abilities have not become any better. Fortunately, with age has come a bit more perspective on what others would think of my dancing ability - who cares.

Dancing is actually a really great workout. If you really go at it and keep yourself moving for a long period, you’ll be beat by the end. In spite of the fact that I workout 6 times a week, and two days of that being cardio, I am dead by the end of two songs of heavy dancing. Dancing is a whole body workout that can burn as many calories as jogging for a similar period - overall, an excellent workout.

While you may incorporate a dance class in your weekly workout routines, I find dancing with my kids one of the best ways to have a healthy and active lifestyle in general. Kids love to dance and move, and they will have you moving around with them if you will do it with them.

If you’re a little hesitant about your dance skills, as I am, you should not be. The best part about dancing with my kids is that they do not care one bit how bad of a dancer I am. We’re all just having a great time together. My kids just want to have a fun time, and the smiles and laughing that goes along with a little dance party is always a lot of fun and a real heart beater.

Dance parties can happen anytime

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

These days, you can literally have a dance party anywhere you want. Your phone will stream music from any service from almost any place. It’s pretty incredible. We like to have our dance parties at home, but if you are more comfortable doing them somewhere else, then more power to you for it.

We have both Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot devices throughout our house, and we generally just use our Amazon Prime membership to stream music, or Google Play Music. While we have goth devices, I’d recommend investing in one or the other of the devices throughout your home. I’m a big technology person so I like to try a lot of different devices - the nice thing about sticking to one brand is that they’ll work together in many different ways, including the ability to stream the same music to multiple devices at the same time.

The important thing is that you get up and move. There are many times where I may not feel like it, but afterwards, I’m glad that I did. A bit of research shows that there are articles which show that non-goal directed dance can reduce stress - after a long day at work, that’s exactly what I need. It puts me in a better mood and I’m more fun to be around.

Listen to your kids favorite songs with them

Our dance parties are always spontaneous. One of my kids wants to listen to a song, and so we turn it on, and then they are begging for me to dance with them. Sometimes the whole family will have a good dance party, especially if it’s a song that we all like, but a lot of times it’s just the kid and one of the parents.

Recent favorite songs have included: 

• Old Town Road - This generally involves a bit of fake horse riding, some running around, and some grinding type moves that always get a good laugh out of my wife. Usually when this song comes on, it sits on repeat 10 times in a row until we’re sick enough of it that we have to turn it off. There are plenty of breaks throughout the 10 times in a row as well - that would be one killer workout.
• Run Baby Run - This is probably my favorite on this list of songs. You’ll probably need a bit more room for it, but there’s a lot of different actions that go on throughout the song, including running. The best part is that near the end, there’s a really slow part of this song that then turns into a frantic run that is just a lot of fun with the kids.
• Baby Shark - Can’t wait until this one gets off of the list. Every parent’s nightmare song. I’m sure it’s already stuck in your head just reading the title of the song.

We’ve gone through a lot of other phases in the past, and some songs are more fun than others, but overall it’s a lot of fun.

Conclusion

Having a spontaneous dance party with your kids is a great way to keep an active lifestyle even with your busy life as a parent. Your kids will enjoy having one of their favorite people moving with them, even if you are making a fool out of yourself while doing it. Get up and move!