A frequent topic of conversation among my peer mothers, is keeping our kids innocent. Letting our kids have a childhood free of corruption; free of the things that make them grow up too soon. We've tried to keep our kids in a bubble. No cable, very little reference to pop culture... well, I mean current pop culture, they're pretty well versed in Dylan and Bowie, but I digress... Gwen has however, taken a strong liking to Katie Perry. I'm not sure if it's the Sesame Street video of her that we saw months ago or that she is... well, I'll admit, kinda cool... But none the less, there is something cringeworthy about your 6 year old singing, "I think we kissed but I forgot... Yeah I think we broke the law, Always say we're gonna stop-oh oh ohhhh..."
Yikes... But it got me thinking. I remember being 6. And, I'm pretty sure that I was a cool 6 year old. My parents were young and hip. I had lots of super cool older cousins that had MTV and kept me in the know. I liked to dance on the ceiling with Lionel Richie... I thought Twisted Sister was AWESOME! A quick search yielded the top hits of 1986 and amongst them, a somewhat raunchy song that I remember singing as a child, Kiss by Prince and the Revolution. NICE. Now, I KNOW I sang that song and I think I turned out ok. I think if Gwen sang along to Kiss I'd cringe about as hard as with Katie Perry... or perhaps more. So, I guess it's ok, right?
I think as a parent it's easy to forget what it was like to be a child. Despite my mother listening to "easy listening" on the radio, I still knew Prince, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, etc. And I'm okay too.
ReplyDeleteWhen do we really lose our innocence as children? Probably when we find out that there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, and that our parents actually made up these ridiculous creatures and lied to us about it.