Massage Tribe

The Big Boy Entrepreneurial Endeavor:
Over a year ago my daughter discovered she could ask Alexa (our Amazon Echo) to play songs.   She would say songs she knew or just random words and see what would come up.   One day she asked for ‘moon rise’ and got a song she liked.   It was peaceful and we all liked the song and asked for it frequently.

Recently we upgraded to Amazon Unlimited music, which increased the total number of songs Alexa would play.   This was good, because the children hated it when they were informed a song would be only, ‘a sample’.   But it also changed some of the songs they commonly asked for.   It changed because with the expanded available songs to play, Alexa was giving a different resulting song for things like, “play moon rise” than she did previously.    We had to figure out who the artist was to the original Moon Rise to make my daughter happy.   In the end it worked out because my son liked the new Moon Rise and she liked the old one.

Last Friday when my son was at home having to do work and not attend the class field trip, I came back from errands to the sounds of some very pleasant, almost southwestern instrumental music.   I wondered what my husband had put on because it was working—my son was focused on his school work.   Later I asked my husband and found out he didn’t put the music on, my son did.

It took me two more days to figure out that my son was asking for music by a group called, “Massage Tribe”.   If you’ve ever been to a spa or to get a massage, it’s the kind of music that’s played in the background to instill you with a sense of calm.

Where did he find out about the group Massage Tribe, I asked?   It turns out that’s the name of the artists for the new “Moon Rise” song which had started playing once we upgraded the music option.   My son figured out he could ask Alexa to play songs by Massage Tribe get a lot more songs like the new version of Moon Rise.

Tonight at our pre-Thanksgiving Dinner with our family who had come in for the holiday, my son asked Alexa to play music by Massage Tribe again and then asked the adults in his room to please talk more quietly so everyone could enjoy the music.   After a bit he came around to the two rooms with a very special offer:  Massages for one dollar.  Free for old people.

There was a lot of laughing about this offer, but he was serious and went around giving the grandparents massages for free.   My husband (deemed not free) checked and had a dollar and took my son up on the offer.  My son offered a massage to the non-grandparents for the price of one dollar.  Uncle Brian negotiated a partial massage with a Qdoba receipt from lunch and Uncle Bob and I missed out on account of we didn’t have any money on us.

After making sure everyone in the family had had a chance for a free or cost-based massage, my son looked at his dollar and receipt, and then over to me and said, “I think I’m going to set up a business.”

The Tiny Girl Very Helpful Thief:  While my son was offering free massages to the “old people” and while the “non-old people” were debating if they should give my son a dollar for his new business venture, my daughter decided to get involved.   In her most helpful tone she said, “I know where Mom’s purse is if you need to get a dollar.”