Actually, let me rephrase that. I don’t mean to ask whether your personal iPod is populated with tunes from The Wiggles and Laurie Berkner. What I’m asking is whether you play kids’ music at home or in the car or tailor your musical choices to those that are appropriate for kids – meaning that you don’t tune into KBPI or crack open the Skinny Puppy when the kids are in the car with you.
Or do you say to hell with it – they ought to appreciate the classics like AC/DC and The Stones, so why not start them early?
I know there’s a lot of great kids’ music out there. We own several CDs – not just from the mainstream kids’ artists, but from some cool emerging musicians too.
But do we play them? Not unless they are specifically requested (and sometimes not even then).
That’s right; my daughter knows that her father’s favorite band is Rush, and that my favorite is Depeche Mode. She refers to Gwen Stefani as “Hollaback Girl” and only recently learned that the lyrics actually don’t go like this: “Michelle is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!” When we’re in the car together, she asks me to scan through the radio stations to find a song that I can sing along to.
(Gotta love a child who appreciates my mediocre voice.)
We don’t listen to Eminem or Nine Inch Nails around the kids, just like we don’t watch The Sopranos or Deadwood when they’re awake. But there’s only so much kiddie stuff that parents can take.
Growing up, we listened to my parents’ favorites from the 1950s and 1960s, along with several Broadway and movie soundtracks. I’m a long-time fan of West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Grease.
But we also listened to popular music, some of which was questionable in terms of how appropriate it was for the elementary school set. How about “The Stroke” by Billy Squier? Or “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band? No f-bombs were dropped, but those are a couple of highly suggestive songs. Even Olivia Newton John dropped her Sandra Dee routine and got down and dirty with “Physical.”
There’s nothing wrong with kids’ music; I just don’t see the need to break out specific tunes for the kids. As long as we’re not exposing them to music that’s clearly inappropriate for their age, why can’t they listen to what we enjoy too?
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Lizzy
I fist heard Lets Get Physical on one of my mom’s exercise videos so I just always assumed it meant exercising (hee hee). I have to admit I try to keep the station on classical when the kids are in the car. I am waiting to show them my “cool” music when they are teens, sort of as a secret weapon. I’ll never forget the day my dad told me he was a big fan of Iron Butterfly and The Grateful Dead. He taught me to like opera and then suddenly became cool when he needed it the most.
Gretchen aka mopsy
I think it is really important for kids to appreciate a broad range of music. We don’t have CDs or songs that are just for kids, except for one Thomas the Tank Engine CD. Otherwise, you’ll find them listening to everything from Johnny Cash and Etta James to Blonde Redhead and the White Stripes. Of course we monitor songs for iffy lyrics. Right now, they are loving Feist. I have Beastie Boys songs on my iPod and I play it in the car. But they are “good” and I don’t have to censor anything.
Ironically, my mom didn’t censor my music much. I remember singing along to “Centerfold”, “Abracadabra”, “Come On Eileen”…etc. without my mom snapping the radio off. I would! And I thought she was such a prude….
tmrperry
Maybe I’m a heathen but I listen to the regular radio (or channel 01 on Sirius) when the kids are in the car. If there is a song I can’t stand, or one with lyrics I don’t like, I’ll just change the channel. I grew up in the 70s where all the music was about sex, drugs, and war. I turned out fine. My kids will, too.
Aimee
We are totally on the same wavelength! Wait till you see my post about Red Rocks. 😉 And while there is some kid’s music I like, we DEFINITELY expose Declan to all sorts of things. We also have a general rule that NO KID’S MUSIC IS ALLOWED IN THE CAR. This is for my sanity as well as Declan’s well being.
But Declan totally impressed me the other day by correctly identifying “If You Really Love Me” as being by Stevie Wonder while we were eating out… and his favorite band is The Beatles (and the Wiggles).
As a music love, I *love* that Declan loves music too. All kinds of music!
Shawna
I never played kid music. Last week I put Laura on and she danced and sang like crazy. She just doesn’t dance to my music like that, I like blues.
So I’m going to try to play kids music more but definitely not all the time.
Billi
My daughter used to flop around in my stomach at Av’s games when they’d play Metalica. While not my favorite music, she, now at the age of 3, loves all types of music (her favorites are Train and The Fray). My dad used to wake me up blasting the Everly Brother’s “Wake up Little Susie” every weekend morning. It wasn’t too long ago that I really listened to the words. I wasn’t pregnant/in jail/sleeping on some boy’s couch any time too soon so I fail to believe the lyrics affected me negatively. Most all music makes me happy and it seems as though it has the same affect on my daughter. Sing!
FirealSwords
I listen to kids cds (Wiggles, kid songs mix cds, etc) when my kids request it, but most of the time, I just listen to Johnny Cash. My daughter loves it! I’m lucky that my kids love my music, because I can only stand one rotation of a Wiggles cd before I wanna scream!
Amy
When I was a kid we listend to Raffi, disney sing-along-songs and wee sing tapes, but we also listened to a lot of Oldies. My dad raised us with a healthy appreciation of The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkle, Bread and other bands from his own childhood. We also listened to classical music, mariachi, contemporary Christian, pop, gospel, jazz standards and showtunes. Our parents taught us kids a to appreciate music of all varieties and I think that has helped us grow into the well rounded adults we are today. I think it’s great that your kids will grow up knowing depeche mode. 🙂