Monday, April 11, 2011

turmoil in tune town

brooke's been doing this thing lately where she's suddenly growing up. she's interested in clothes & not just wanting to wear all natural animal colors anymore & she likes cute shoes. she's been wearing animal ears less frequently and wanting to talk on the phone & skype. these are all good things & nice for me to see because it has been very hard for me to imagine what kind of teenager and woman she would become when i didn't see any signs of interest in "normal" stuff before.

she's also become interested in music lately. chris is a musician and has very eclectic taste, so we've got lots of different stuff playing around the house & in the car when chris is around. i usually hear music & just think it sounds like noise when i'm home, so i turn it off, but when we're driving, i generally tune in to one popular radio station or another.

we've discovered that we can put music onto brooke's DSi & she can listen to it & mess with the songs using lots of special effects, which is a lot of fun for her. in the course of finding some songs to load onto it, she's made some suggestions of songs she'd like that are popular, but once i really listen to them, or look up the lyrics, they're really bad!

when i was a kid, my parents didn't let us listen to "secular" music. it was classical or christian in our house & i always felt like i was missing out on part of growing up that all my friends enjoyed. as a mom, i've decided not to make that rule for brooke, particularly since i don't follow it myself. i appreciate some christian music, but it's certainly not all i listen to. but with that being said, sometimes it's hard for us to find music that's acceptable & appropriate for an 8 yr old girl to be listening to & singing as she plays.

there's the katy perry song "california gurls" with the line, "Daisy Dukes, Bikinis on top. Sun-kissed skin So hot Will melt your popsicle, Oooooh Oh Oooooh." of course, brooke's favorite bit is the one about the popsicle, because what kid doesn't love a popsicle, but i'm not loving hearing her sing about daisy dukes and bikinis so hot they'll melt anyone's popsicle.

she was singing along with lady gaga on the radio when i heard the line, "i wanna take a ride on your disco stick." ick! not something kids should be singing, time to change the station.

then there's the kesha song she wanted called "blah, blah, blah." i googled those lyrics & found this little batch of verbal gems. "I dont really care where you live at. Just turn around boy and let me hit that. Don't be a little bitch with your chit chat. Just show me where your dick's at."

she was getting frustrated that i shot down that song too & she didn't understand what my problem was, so i finally told her that the song was about sex. her face shut up in mid-complaint. we recently had the birds & bees talk, so she knew what i meant. she started backing away from me, but i figured since i had started, i might as well throw in another hunk of disturbing info for her - "it talks about penises." at that point she started waving her arms & telling me that she'd never ask for another kesha song again & to please stop talking about it.

this parenting business is tricky, but i'm thankful for google because it puts all the information i could possibly want or need right at my fingertips. but then again, it puts all that same info at the tips of my brookie's fingers too & that might not be such a good thing as she get curious about more things. damn...

21 comments:

  1. One of my son's favorite songs is Rockstar...I had to explain to him that he was not allowed to sing about how "girls come easy and drugs come cheap". I am dreading the birds and bees talk with everything that is in me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad I am past that stage with my kids. When they were little, they listened to all types of music and each have pretty eclectic taste now. At that age I remember somthing about Disney Hits - where they take the same songs but tone them down.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know exactly how you feel, I am going through the same issue with both of my kids.

    ReplyDelete
  4. yeah, my kids love a lot of the popular music, but then as they're watching music videos, and all they're filled with b*tches and ho's grinding around, and everybody is super sexed and super under-clothed, and the lyrics are all "GRIND ME NOW", I just kinda sigh and think "why? Why? WHY!!!" Makes me crazy. I had a little rant-off myself about Dingdong Perry. Good times!

    ReplyDelete
  5. My problem with my daughter happened soon after the first Austin Powers movie came out. I bought the soundtrack and my four year old daughter's favorite song was "I Touch Myself." Yikes, Marie, how embarrassing do you think THAT was when we rolled through the drive thru with her singing?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kiddo had some of her own cds at that age. She just loved the Hex Girls from that Scooby Doo movie- The Witches Ghost.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your post is spot on...how can parents feel like they're shielding kids from the bad stuff when all they have to do is Google it? When we were kids at least we had to work at it and be creative to find where the bad stuff was hidden!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I grew up listening to everything from Ozzy Osbourne, to Pink Floyd, to Allman Brothers, to Beatles, etc. And then as I got older my mom never restricted what I listened to but she definitely made sure any inappropriate behavior was nixed ASAP. So when my daughter, who's 5, sings along to whatever I'm listening to, I don't get worried. I think that if a parent instills good values and morals into a child, and teach them to make good decisions and how to fix bad decisions... it shouldn't matter what tries to influence them. I mean, just because all of my friends were drinking, on drugs or getting pregnant didn't mean I was. In fact I didn't do any of those things because I knew that the consequences from my mom would always be worse than any peer pressure I'd get. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's funny - our boys are only 2 and they are already highly opinionated about the music we listen to. If a song comes on the radio they don't like, they start to yell, "What's next?! What's next!?" LOL

    ReplyDelete
  10. You're going to have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions as your daughter grows up! Well done for being honest with her. As you can see, she agrees that it wouldn't be suitable.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hear this! I don't let my kids listen to much popular music, for this reason. And Kelsey loves metal, and who knows what they're saying! haha. J/k. So ya, the world at all our fingertips. Scary actually. My kids are just going to hate me for their sheltered little lives, but I am ok with that!

    That said, anytime I mention anything about sex (mostly baby talk) Kelsey is like DON"T!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. You need to lock her up now! She is beautiful and you will have your hands full with the boys...

    ReplyDelete
  13. "It talks about penises" is the new warning I'm going to give my parents when they want to watch movies with me that feature uncomfortable sex scenes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good job! At one piont, I insisted on listening to my son's music with him, and he was shocked to have to hear those lyrics in front of his mom. :-)

    Then he went to Country Western. A little easier on the brain, compared to pop...

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh! I get it, really I do. My little Diva loves to sing along with the radio and I'm always switching mid song. I can NOT believe what they will play now for daytime listening hours! Don't suppose you've googled "Do it Like a Dude"... I think I was gasping while I frantically slapped at the radio buttons for that one.
    We try to download radio edits for the kids to hear the more popular stuff without all the vulgarity, BUT we still have to face the innuendos (ie: popsicles). So sad!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't know if it's just me or if it is my idiot computer, but I can't read your post and, and, I guess I just wanted to tell you that your trees are all over the words and I can't see them. The middle part where it used to be white doesn't seem to be white anymore and I am feeling a little crazy because I want to read your post. :( Is it just me??

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well...no better place for her to Learn stuff from then MOM (or dad)
    I hate the word penis actually. (tee,hee)
    I think there is so much that our kids listen to that they have NO idea what they are talking about.
    sometimes I don't even know what they are talking about....sheeesh

    ReplyDelete
  18. One of the reasons it's so difficult to avoid these songs is because of the catchy beat. They make you feel happy, or bouncy. :))

    I'm 21, and my mom or dad never really told us what to listen to and what not to listen to.
    In defense to them , i think they thought they raised us well enough to decide for ourselves.
    It came to a point when i stopped watching tv and didn't listen to the radio because i felt that everything there was about drugs sex and money.

    I didn't like that stage because i became an introvert. Good thing those days were gone when EVERYTHING was about drugs sex and money .

    My point is, there are a lot of new pop-ish artist that have great music. Just instill good values to your child and she'll know what to do and what to choose without being self righteous.

    I go out, party, rock out on concerts, but I dont drink, I don't smoke, I don't even curse (except when i'm really really REALLY pissed).

    So yeah, breath a lil easier knowing that you're raising her well. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. *ps
    when i say i party .. i don't run around naked or do anything foolish. just to straight things out. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. My son likes the music I like, especially when I was a single mum. He has his own ipod and computer now, but I regulate what music goes on there, and his pc isnt hooked to the internet. He is allowed to go on mine, but only his KIDS websites.

    Google is great for lyrics, and also movie reviews :)

    ReplyDelete

don't let me be the only one doing the talking around here. spill your guts!