Thursday, July 05, 2007

Glamorous Bananas

So. A question.

If I download a song and have to pick between the "clean" and the explicit version, am I a bad mother for letting my 13 year old listen to the explicit one because that's the version I like better?

Am I being realistic or hypocritical if I tell her that a certain word/phrase is gauche/impolite and then let her hear a song that uses it, knowing that she'll come across that version of the song anyways with friends, or elsewhere (the bus driver plays hardcore rap on his radio, for crying out loud, with a busload of little catholic school kids)?

What's worse - to let her know what a "naughty" word or phrase means, or to let her be naieve when other kids her age probably have that particular knowledge? I mean, I'm not showing her porn online or anything. But if I explain what U + Ur Hand means, am I an indecent freak (ditto for thinking the song is funny)? If she likes songs by Fergie and Gwen Stefani instead of Hannah Montana am I obligated to censor her music tastes in order to be a "good mother"?

Do I have enough catholic guilt going on in this post, Poly?

2 comments:

onescrappychick said...

ROFL about the Catholic guilt. What I am struggling with, is realizing that he is in fact ALMOST a teenager, and I need to start treating him as such.

I think you did the right thing.. but hey.. what the heck do I know?

(and I always d/l the explicit ones also)

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't worry about it. By her age I'd seen, heard and said a whole bunch of things that would have turned my parents very pale, had they known. I think adults are way more sensitive and squeamish about this kind of thing. I used to warn my parents not to watch some films because I knew the swearing or violence would offend them - my brother and I would call these films 'not suitable for parental viewing'. Anyway, listening to a censored version only gives the uncensored one more mystique. I say you were spot on.

Marco.

Things will get better... right?

I distinctly remember a day in... maybe February?  I remember the moment, but not what day it was. I was sitting at work thinking about plan...