Slow Down

Nichole Nordeman wrote this song for her son, Charlie, when he graduated from fifth grade. It was intended as just a gift for him, but it became something much bigger. Included on her EP The Unmaking, it resonated with parents who felt like their time with their children were going by too fast.

In a Songfacts interview with Nordeman, she talked about the "slow down" concept: "The song is about lamenting how we are unable to slow down the process of how quickly our children grow up. But in the absence of time machines, I think our only real response as parents can be to slow ourselves down. Be more present. Less distracted. Treat the special moments with care and reverence and treat the everyday moments the very same way. Find ways to eliminate the things in our lives that are cumbersome and unnecessary and mostly obligatory, in order to create space for the stuff that counts. Easier said than done, I know."

The video is comprised of candid footage of family moments shot by friends and associates of Nordeman who supplied it after she asked them for footage of the moments they'd most like to slow down in their children's lives. Some of the video was shot by her son, Charlie, who inspired the song. It quickly amassed over 23 million views when she posted it on her Facebook page, and it got millions more when it was posted to YouTube.