Watch This Father/Daughter Beat Box Showdown

Let me explain to you how I feel watching this video of a father and daughter having a beatbox battle. Do you guys remember the movie Amadeus? The basic premise is that it's the story of Mozart's career as told by Antonio Salieri, a fellow composer and rival. Throughout the movie, Salieri laments that no matter how hard he works, he will never possess Mozart's otherwordly, God-given talent. Moreover, he grows increasingly despondent and frustrated that Mozart doesn't seem to grasp or particularly care about the depth of his own genius. Basically they collectively are Mozart and I'm Salieri. I feel like a complete failure as a parent for not teaching my children how to beatbox; as a daughter for not learning how to beatbox; and, like, as a human in general, in life, at everything because no matter what I do or where I go, I will never, ever be able to do this. And these two? They're just sitting there, at their dining room table or whatever, calmly smiling, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they have just done the coolest thing ever.

The video is entitled "Nicole Paris (Mentor Vs. Apprentice Pt. 2)" and in a rare moment of Internet solidarity, pretty much everyone agrees that young Nicole crushed it. Truly, the padawan has bested the Jedi master. (As commenter Blanca Munguia astutely and adorably points out "And the pride in your dad's face. He is so very happy to be defeated by such a worthy opponent.") It is so cool to see where their styles are similar and where Apprentice Nicole has clearly taken things in a totally different direction. I sincerely hope we will see a lot more of her incredible talent moving forward.

In the meantime, I have to figure out what to do with this empty feeling in my soul now that I know there are people out there who can do this and I... can't. But there is a small but beautiful flicker of hope on the horizon: like seeing the shimmer of a butterfly's wings from across a field. As I watched this video, my one-year-old daughter sat on my lap, entranced. After Nicole's turn, my child turned around, began blowing raspberries, then looked at me expectantly like "Did you hear that? Mom! Did you just hear my sick beats?"

Yes, my young apprentice. Yes I did...

#maniacallaugh #newgoal #livingvicariouslythroughmychild #stagemom

Images: YouTube; Giphy