Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Buffy

It’s not a new concept: listen to classical music while you’re pregnant, play Beethoven to baby when he’s awake, leave Mozart softly wafting through the house when baby is falling asleep. You, too, can calm your baby and make him smart and happy with a flick of your clicker. Turn on the music, and make sure it’s classical.

Classical music has cornered the baby market. There are toys and dvds and cds chock full of Bach. There are studies to prove the calming and brain-enhancing benefits of Beethoven. Crib toys, bassinet radios, discovery centers, and more are readily available online, in catalogs, and in the stores as well as plastered onto baby registries as “must-haves” for the new bundle of joy.

We are pummeled with countless tips and tricks on how to get our unborn child to listen to classical music—really listen. When he’s older, they’ll boast, you’ll have a happy baby! Ads with beautifully humungous moms-to-be relaxing in a gliding rocker, eyes closed—in a serene, not exhausted, manner—with ipod earbuds pressed against their gigantic, yet perfectly round bellies tell you all you need to know. Right? You can soothe your kid into oblivion and, when all is said (by them) and done (by you), you’ll have an exceedingly happy baby. There is even a series of “Happy Baby” cds filled with hours of classical music. Seriously.

As luck, genes, environment, (or music) would have it, I do have a happy baby: an amazingly happy baby. I wonder what “they” would say if they knew that, at six months old, he stopped everything to whip his head around when the theme song to Buffy the Vampire Slayer blared out of our TV speakers. Not exactly Vivaldi but, I assure you, calming and cheering to him nonetheless. Granted, I watched it (a lot) when I was pregnant so there might be something to all that in utero stuff, but, as any BtVS fan knows, the tune is catchy and downright chipper. It makes me happy and makes my little guy happy, too. I sometimes sing him little ditties from the brilliant episode “Once More, With Feeling”, Buffy: the musical, during which he gets all wide-eyed and breaks out in the most adorable jack-o-lantern grin. There may be some giggling, cackling, and guffawing involved—from both parties. Even my toddler gets into it, now. He often requests the soundtrack and we dance around the living room, singing and laughing like lunatics. Bottom note: listen to whatever floats your boat, it will float baby’s too.