I'm fond of the kid thread. As I said before, I'm no expert on them, even though I
have 3 of my own and 2 quasi-stepchildren. All 5 of them are different as heck and I
bet that there are a million more varieties out there.
I loved Vince's post:
<<<<But I do know this: every time we condemn the kids and knock the music of today as
opposed to the better music of our youth, we are saying the same things that our
parents said about us, and it was/is wrong both
times.>>>
True right out the wahoo. And as a parent, why would you want to crush a beginning
love of music?
But I believe that there are two distinct things that a parent should do:
1. Guide them into responsible listening.
2. Shine a light on what else might be out there.
3. Balance your priorities and not make such a big deal of out that which shall pass.
(which is 3, but I'm away from the 10-key calculator right now)
I think that it was Steve Seagal or Paz who wrote that it was the vibe or feel of the
music that hooked them. And that's good, but if "N'Sync" sang about killing minorities
or hating gays, you can bet that their music would be on the Lima Bean List. (that
which is not allowed in my house).
And whaddaya do then? I think that you sit down and you don't blast or condemn the
music, you help them understand how powerful music is and how powerful hateful
messages within the lyrics can be. Is this the person that you want to be?
I think that music today is so different in terms of subject matter. Controversial
themes that were tied up in ineundos 30 years ago, are now explicitly described. It
wasn't a big deal for me to take 5 years to decipher what CSN meant by "be sure to
hide the roaches," but I sure don't want my son listening to songs about killing gays
and slowly pulling the "better way" out from that rumble of hate.
Finally, Patrick points out:
>>at some point, no matter how much light we shine
for our children, ultimately a time will come when they will make all their own
decisions.
This is very true.
Some parts of parenting are downtright aerobic. You have to be aware, you have to be
involved, set good and strong moral and ethic examples for your children in your
habits: musical and otherwise. And you have to be wrong and fallible and let them know
that life is still for learning for you.
I believe that practising these exercises can help make the mmoment of their own
decision as safe and rewarding as possible.
MG
np: coffee perking
