Shannon Philpott-Sanders

Do You Hear the Words That are Coming Out of My Mouth?

 The other morning I was jolted out of bed by the sound of my daughter singing in her room. The sound of her voice was not disconcerting at all – in fact, it was beautiful. It was the lyrics that jolted me after hearing an 11-year old sing about getting “crunk and drunk.”

 I pulled myself out of bed after I heard: “Before I leave, I’ll brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack.” A few seconds later … “Erbody getting crunk (crunk), Boys try to touch my junk (junk), Gonna sock ‘em if he gettin too drunk (drunk).” Thank you, Ke$ha.

 As a parent, it stings to hear your young kids sing about grown-up stuff. We hope and pray that they have no idea what the words mean and yet, when we find out that they do, we feel sad that our babies are growing up too fast.

 My daughter sings the lyrics as if they have no meaning, just as I sang my heart out to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” as an 8-year old. The difference is that I had NO idea what a virgin was at that age. My daughter, exposed to 900 5^th and 6^th graders daily, does know what crunk, drunk and junk mean. I know because I asked.

 That is the key. Instead of sitting silently, hoping and praying that our kids don’t know the meaning, we have to ask them. As parents, we need to be the ones to explain these concepts to them or we are going to have to play clean-up when another child gives them the wrong answer.

 Even though she may not be old enough, in my mind, to have access to the concepts, the fact is that she is exposed to it and no amount of censorship is going to change that.

 So, instead of showing my horror this morning, I simply asked her to explain the concepts. She did and then I asked her to play it again, all while showing off my hip-hop dance moves in the middle of our hallway.

 If you can’t stop them, join them – or – embarrass them.

– Shannon Philpott
Blog Entry: Feb. 26, 2010

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February 26, 2010 - Posted by sphilpott | Blog, Parenting, Reflecting | censorship, children and song lyrics, Kesha, kids growing up too fast, music censorship, parenting, song lyrics