It is known that one of the best payoffs of parenting is indoctrination. Yes yes, we all want to avoid the pitfalls of forcing your child to dance to the dreams of the parents. But wouldn’t it be AWESOME if you could get them to play Super Mario Bros. 3 with you in two player mode and enjoy what you grew up with? Let’s just leave aside the fact that you would be trying to get them to enjoy a 30-year old game.

Anyway, the Benalish Momma leaves me to do daycare drop-off in the mornings. This means I have total control over Lil’ Chandra’s sensory inputs for ~15 minutes a day. To some this might not sound like to much. To those I say: you lack vision. So let the indoctrination begin with… orchestrated video game music!

It’s a pretty short jaunt from playing video games, to listening to video game music (litereally designed to be easy background listening) to then getting classy and enjoying orchestrated video game music.

It’s worth noting that I’m allowed to listen to this on the Sonos only while cooking. The moment–and I really do mean to the second–the cooking is finished, the Benalish Momma smoothly changes the channel back to KEXP or something similar. What’s particularly amusing about this is that this house rule grew up organically without ever being explicitly discussed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mfQ5B3o298

I want to be clear that the payoffs are worth it. Is it incredibly adorable when your toddler requests, “Center of Commerce”? It is! Side note: Octopath Traveller was a JRPG with a fantastic battle system, truly astounding music, and was deeply hollow with how they set up the episodic plot. Happy to rant about this in the comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzASp5bipxw

I’ve been getting more ambitious lately. I introduced one of the battle themes but called it the “Jumping music” when Lil’ Chandra was feeling bouncy. Now she also requests, “Decisive Battle” from time to time. Success!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r2aaytdsJA