I never meant to become Rainbow Phil, it just kind of happened, and quite unintentionally, developed into what I spend most of my time doing! Here is how it all happened…
One morning in December 2011 I woke up, got in my car, drove across England and Wales and onto the Ferry at Hollyhead to start a new life in Dublin, Ireland.
So maybe it wasn’t quite as spontaneous as that, but I was still starting a new life. Previous to that, in Manchester, UK, my wife was in a job where she felt under appreciated and feared for a recession induced redundancy, while I was working in the same job that I had fallen into since graduating from my music degree in 2006. The job that I was only doing until I figured out what I really wanted to do with my life, or until the band I was in ‘made it big’. We also had a our baby boy who, was in creche 5 days a week, neither ideal nor cost effective. So when a career defining job offer came for my wife, we had to seriously consider our options. The only problem was that not only was it in a whole other city in was in a whole different country…
We decided to go for it. My wife would go out to work and I would stay at home with the baby. Why work full time to pay someone else to raise our child? Sure it was going to be hard, but looking after babies isn’t rocket science? Surely? Of course, my first day in ‘my new job’ we ended up spending the night in Temple Street Childrens Hospital with a minor head injury, but that’s another story…
We quickly figured out where the local parks were and we also found out where the parent and toddler playgroups were held. These playgroups were great, Alfie would be able socialise and run around while I would be able to make new friends. Or at least that was the plan. I have never had the ability to simply approach women and strike up a conversation, so being faced with a room full of women and trying to make friends was quite a daunting prospect! I took the easy way out. Each time we went to a playgroup, I would sit on the floor and play with Alfie, except Alfie didn’t want to play with boring old Daddy so he ran off. Instead, other children would come to play with me, so I would spend my time chatting and making friends with random toddlers, as you do!
Toddlers are
fascinating creatures and can appear completely irrational and difficult to understand. So to help me in my new job role of “Full Time Dad” and to help me to become the best full time dad I could be, I subscribed to all the childcare blogs I could find, I read articles by early years educators and researched as much as possible the baffling behaviour of these little people. I found that when you can see the world in the same way that a brand new person does, their behaviour starts making much more sense.
Our first Summer in Dublin was when I met Niamh Parkinson, the creator of Rainbow Music for Kids. I signed Alfie up to her Summer classes and every morning for a week, we went to see ‘The Singing Lady’. After a couple of days I plucked up the courage to ask Niamh for some advise. I was interested in combining my background in music with a career in childcare; would I need to be Garda Vetted, do I need any childcare qualifications? Niamh’s answer; “Come and work for me!” This was not at all the response I was expecting, “But I wouldn’t be able to do what you do, I can’t sing!” I protested, “Ahhh sure you’ll be grand, you’ll figure it out!” she said.
That was settled then, Niamh would teach me her Rainbow Music for Kids songs and routines and all I had to do was learn them. But first, I would need to actually learn how to sing, a minor detail, but sure, I’ll figure it out, somehow.