I was perusing Facebook the other day and up popped this photo with the caption “Look what I just found in Orion's backpack. I have no words.†It was posted by a friend whose 5-year-old son is in kindergarten. For those of you not familiar with the LMFAO song (or the way little kids spell), it says, “My sister is sexy and she knows it.†I laughed out loud — one of those cringe-y, I’ve-so-been-there but I’m-glad-this-is-not-me laughs. And then I liked it. The comment section lit up with smiley face emojis and “you should frame this!†declarations. My friend’s husband (jokingly) added: “The one I found says, ‘I got pashun in my pants and I ayntt afrayed to show it.’†Clearly, they’re laughing about it, which is exactly what my husband and I would do. But there is an underlying issue here that plagues my family as well: The radio is a minefield of inappropriateness and when you like listening to music (or frequent places where music is played, like, I don’t know, Earth), it can be hard to navigate.
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Turns out my friend is not jamming to “I’m Sexy And I Know It†with her kids every night. In fact, she says she can’t stand that song (and she changes the station any time a tune with a sexual message comes on), but her older nephews think it’s hilarious and they sing it constantly and, well, we all know how much little kids idolize their big cousins. Plus, we can’t control everything our kids are exposed to, especially once they’re in school and riding the bus and hanging with older family members. (My son recently learned to give the middle finger from his fifth-grade cousin — nice, right?) We just have to deal with the consequences. For my friend, that meant explaining to her son what “sekse†means (He told her he thought it meant cool). She went with “it basically means you think someone is really pretty or really handsome and you want to marry them.†This cured her son of using the term, especially in reference to his little sister.
I have three kids, ages 6, 4, and 5 months, and we listen to a lot of music. Around the house we mostly play classic rock, reggae, and jazz, which is generally pretty safe. But in the car, I’m not gonna lie, we sometimes crank the top 40. What can I say? It’s fun. And catchy. But it ain’t PG. A lot of lyrics are innuendo, which the kids are too little to grasp (I hope!) but the word sex or sexy is in so many pop songs right now it’s nearly impossible to avoid. And don’t even get me started on the songs about binge drinking (sidenote: If Lil Jon and LMFAO wrote a song where the chorus was Wine! Wine! Wine! Wine! Wine! Wine! I’d probably add it to my adults-only playlist).
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I, like my friend, am constantly flipping the station. Sometimes I just resort to classical, much to my pop-loving 4-year-old’s protests. But it’s often too little too late. Yes, my kids have heard (and can recite) the ubiquitous “I’m Sexy And I Know It.†And yes, they too have tried to use the word sexy in the past.
I suppose the only way to truly avoid this issue would be to put a CD of nursery rhymes on repeat or to dig up the old Music in Me disc or, if I must have my Top 40-fix, listen to Kidz Bop (those are the G-rated versions of pop songs and so not the same thing). But all of that sounds a little helicopter parenty to me. Or maybe that’s just my way of rationalizing the fact that I don’t want to listen to Alvin and the Chipmunks sing Katy Perry. And isn’t it better that my children hear these words when I’m around so I can explain (in an age-appropriate way) what they mean? Lord knows what they’ll be learning on the bus. I think it’s a tough call and I imagine every family handles it differently. But I think my friend did a great job.
What do you think? What would you do if you found this picture in your kid’s backpack? And do you listen to the radio with your kids? How do you get around the “bad words� Let’s discuss.
More from this author:
The Parenting Experiment That Saved My Sanity
The Secret Joys of Being a Mom
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