So. After making breakfast for everyone this morning, I go back into my room to get dressed, realize that it's 8:30 am and I've been up for at least an hour and it's Sunday. I consider putting everyone in gear and going to church, but my bed looks really warm and inviting. I crawl back under the covers with the dogs and prepare myself for inquiring "mommy?" calls from the other room. I doze, half asleep but listening to the events in the other room. This is a self-preservation strategy I learned once Dillon started to walk and could join me in my bed at his whim. Basically I have gotten a thick little toddler-head pounded into my nose enough times to realize that I shouldn't sleep when the kids are awake.
NPR is on in the kitchen, the kids are in the playroom, and Chuck is either in the playroom with them or on the couch, I can't tell which. But then the kids start singing, at first quietly enough that I can't make it out, but then it's discernable: "londy londy, lon-dee!" and I realize my children are singing an incredibly inappropriate song by the Black Eyed Peas token chick, Fergie. Her song, "London Bridge" is one of those totally-catchy earworm songs that I kind of like (yeah, I know, it's terrible!) and so don't always turn off when it comes on the radio.
I have a pretty low tolerance for violent, misogynistic, or just exceptionally stupid stuff ("Does Your Chain Hang Low?"), but I don't censor too much music from my kids. Hence, Dillon sings along with "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Blister in the Sun," and that vein of music, despite their lyrics about drug use, etc. I think I turned off "Hits from The Bong" the other day when he was in the car, but it wasn't a terribly high priority. Both Chuck and I make an effort not to play any music with swear words or other words we wouldn't necessarily want to say in front of his teacher, in it, but we don't much edit for content.
Still, it always makes me think twice about this philosophy when I hear Dillon sing something that you probably don't want to hear a five-year-old sing. "When I'm walking I strut my stuff / man I'm so strung out / I'm high as a kite…" You get the idea.
But at the same time, the benefit is a love of a variety of different types of music, from Punk Rock to World Music to Funk to Ska to Motown to Musicals. And we have a larger playlist than just the typical Sesame Street/Dan Zanes/They Might Be Giants short list of kids' music I don't hate.
And it is fantastically cute to hear him sing and dance to "The Big Payback" by James Brown, which Dillon will often say is his favorite song. "Get Down / With My Girlfriend / That Ain't Right!"
I'm just wondering how the "Flogging Molly" t-shirt is received at school…
I was actually quite shocked to hear the F-Bomb being dropped in several songs when listening to D’s birthday CD. But Micah really likes it, so what the heck!
I quite clearly put the “Parental Advisory” label on there for those parents not as super cool as me. Also, I totally missed those when I was putting the cd together. Sorry.