Father of the Year

Trey - Great subject. Having 11 and 9 year old daughters I could share many stories. I have dealt with most of the issues by asking thier interpretation of the lyrics. It usually relaxs me to hear their verry innocent thoughts. I can't remember the name of the song but the lyrics basically said 'I want to give it to you and no one else'. When I asked them what they thought it meant, they responded that the woman that was singing the song had great dance moves and was only going to share them with one person. Oh if things were only that easy.

I have at times heard a song that I just couldn't allow and said to them it was inappropriate but I also explained why it was inappropriate. The most recent occurance was about a week ago involving the song 'Sexy can and I' and we talked about how it was not appropriate. My 11 year old though told me that she new they were talking about a stripper and how disgusting she thought that was. She did say though that she just really liked the beat and dancing to the music. But she respected my wishes and turned off the radio the next time it came on.

Communication is most important.

In a previous post I mentioned that my almost 2 year old had a ball dancing to Prince's "Lovesexy" album. That's the first time I've let him listen to anything remotely like that. So far it's been kid's music, reggae, Beatles, Stevie Wonder...

I was driving yesterday and a song from Dre's "The Chronic" came up on my Phatbox rotation and I thought, "Man, I've got to get all of those CDs....Snoop, Dre, Prince...and put them somewhere until he's old enough" Not to mention the Public Enemy  and other records I have on vinyl. I want him to be a kid as long as possible. I don't want him to know that "911 is a Joke" until he's much older. He's got his entire life to be cynical and savvy.

Yesterday he came running as fast as his little toddler legs could carry him towards me, hair flying, huge grin, and exclaimed loudly, "I'm running!" then flung himself into my arms as I happily caught him. I want him to have that pure, free, unburdened happiness of childhood for as long as possible.

So no, he won't be hearing, "Bitches ain't **** but hoes and tricks" for a very, very ,very long time, if I can help it.    

That's it. I'm starting construction on the bubble for Cade. How can that movie be PG-13? I'm not a prude, but geezus, I think I was still playing with Barbie and watching nothing more racy than the Sonny & Cher show. when I was 13.

Hey Trey - I just discovered this blog.  Your kids are just incredibly adorable!

Yeah, I do censor what my son hears and watches; I'm not obsessive about it, and like you, if there is a song I don't like on, I don't add drama to the situation and his attention can still be deflected.  iTunes makes it pretty easy to select what he has access to.  Plus our radio stations are crap, so it's easy to avoid having it on.  He tends to enjoy our old school music -- Stevie Wonder was a big hit last week.  He's six so I know I'm running out of time..

For years, my kids didn't even know the car radio actually played music or had multiple station choices.  We opted to listen to NPR and my daughter Olivia's favorite dj was Terry Gross.  Commercial radio is scary if you have young children and Lord knows, I cannot handle Disney Radio day in and day out.

Oh my god.  I read your post to my older sister who then called my twin nieces in for a pow-wow.  We asked them to tell us the lyrics since they too, do the dance for this song.  It's good to know that they dont understand the lyrics but its scary to think that their PE teacher at school played them this song :|

As for G and I.... she gets everything under the sun. Im frightened to learn what musical monster Im creating.