What I bought my kids (that made me a hipster? or practical?)

A few months ago, this was probably even before Christmas, my wife and I were sitting on a couch and listening to music.

Or, we heard music.

Because we’d rather not be listening to it.

It was Taylor Swift.

A Taylor Swift playlist chosen by my daughters.

On our Spotify account.

“Our 2023 Wrapped won’t look so good,” I said.

And you know what? It didn’t. Not for my wife especially.

I tend to work by myself for large portions of the day, every day, and my Spotify listening average was like 5 hours a day. That’s a lot of music.

So my Spotify took the hit okay. But not my wife’s.

“This has got to change,” I said. “Let’s buy them a tape player.”

She gave me a look like I just picked up a cockroach from under the rug and swallowed it.

“Like a cassette player?” my wife said. “That’s so…backwards. And how would this solve our Taylor Swift problem?” she asked.

“Remember when you were a kid and you taped stuff off the radio? We’ll do that, but with Spotify.”

So I bought them each one. It looks like this:

Once it arrived, I showed them how the buttons work.

“And you even get the radio!” I said.

“What’s the radio?” my 8 year-old asked.

Face palm aside, they were able to record a few songs. The quality wasn’t great, but they’re kids, right?

They listened to their songs, became a bit frustrated with fast forwarding and rewinding and then clipped the tape players to the side of their pants.

“Can we take it to school?” No.

“Can we take it to the playground?” Yes.

Kids! With tape players! on the playground!

The next day something happened that I didn’t see coming.

My wife went under our bed and dragged out a small blue case.

She opened it and there were dozens of cassette tapes from when *she* was a kid.

Oh, and this was a true cornucopia of delights.

We’re talking MC Hammer, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Beethoven.

My 8 year old like MC Hammer and Mariah Carey, but the 10yo said Beethoven was her favorite.

It was a true family moment.

I was at a work conference and something about kids and music came up. I shared my story.

“That is the most hipster thing I’ve ever heard,” they said.

And everyone nodded yes.

Keep going,

-Josh Spilker

PS: Roundup of things to read coming this weekend