Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Flo Rida and teachable moments

Was driving down the freeway with Olivia this weekend, letting her spin the tunes from my iPhone - like a responsible parent, I might add, as I try to set an example by keeping my paws off my cell while I'm behind the wheel. And I have a new love of some fairly inappropriate pop songs, which of course were the ones she wanted to play.

Right or wrong, I'm not the parent who totally shields her children from the barrage of age inappropriate material that children of all ages are bombarded with on a daily basis. I don't let her watch Tosh.0 - but Rhianna's S&M? Guilty. She's going to hear it, so I'd just as soon she hear it with me so that we can talk about it. Should she ask me what S&M means, or whatever.

This time it was "Like a G6" by Far East Movement."When sober girls around me, they be actin' like they drunk..." not really ideal for her nine year old ears. I didn't want to make a big deal about it and draw attention; but by the same token I felt that moment where, you know, she might be old enough where she's hearing this and it's registering with her.

So I said, kind of under my breath but loud enough for her to hear - you know the words to this song are not really appropriate, right?

"Mom. I would never repeat what what they're saying in the song."

Good, trained response; but an even better teachable moment. We talked a little bit about how not only do songs sometimes have bad words, but they also sing about inappropriate situations and ideas. Great little mother/daughter moment.

Which then justified my not turning off the next song - Flo Rida's "Whistle."

I didn't say a word. But I can tell when Olivia's wheels are turning.

"You know Mom," she finally said, head cocked to the side and hand gestures showing her new maturity from our recent conversation, "I really think that Flo Rida is trying to express his feelings in this song."

"Oh you do? How so?" Brief moment of panic.

"Well, I think maybe he had a really hard time learning to whistle. But then he finally did, and now he wants to teach other people to whistle, too."

Whew. I think we're okay for now.

(And I've embedded the video for those who may not know the song...apologies for the not-so-unexpected booty in the screen below.)



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