There’s one thing you learn quickly when you become a parent: kids absorb everything they hear. And I do mean, EVERYTHING. You try to do the best you can – not swearing in front of them, making sure they don’t watch bad TV, and filtering the songs they listen to.
Sometimes, you fail.
For example, ST has been coming home singing all these songs that I KNOW TK and I don’t let her listen to. When I ask where she’s hearing these, I learn that they play them at the skating rink, or Adventure Landing, or any other random place where the kids have gone on summer field trips. My general filter in this instance is to ask her what the song that she shouldn’t be singing means. If she gets the answer correct, then I have the talk about what is appropriate and what is NOT appropriate for someone her age to be singing. If she doesn’t understand, and it’s mostly metaphor or “code” for something, then I’ll let it go. Whether or not this is the “right” way to parent, I don’t know – but it certainly makes for a more peaceful house.
Lately, she’s been singing the new Kei$ha song, “Take It Off.” Yes, it’s about exactly what you think it’s about. Here are some of the very deep and poetic lyrics:
There’s a place downtown,
Where the freaks all come around.
It’s a hole in the wall.
It’s a dirty free for all.
And they turn me on.
When they Take It Off.
When they Take It Off.
Everybody Take It Off.
There’s a place I know
If you’re looking for a show.
Where they go hardcore
And there’s glitter on the floor.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Kei$ha. I just don’t want my 8 year-old singing it. So I asked her what the song meant, when I caught her singing it. That’s when I learned that she hears the word “glitter” as “litter.” Here’s what she told me:
“Mom, it’s ABOUT a dirty hole in the wall. There’s these people, and they go there, and there’s litter all over the floor. People are throwing trashcans. It’s FREAKY. So she gets excited and CLEANS it. She cleans it HARDCORE. All the dirt… she’s taking it off!”
So I allow it. Who am I to keep her from singing a song in support of a clean room?
