Going Parental: My Car = My Music
Music has always been a very big part of my life. I grew up in a house where music was on in every room. Standards like The Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel, and yeah there was some Neil Diamond in the mix too were a part of our daily routine. I’m not gonna lie, I knew all the words to America. Go ahead and laugh. You all knew them too and now I hope the words are stuck in your head all day long like they’re going to be stuck in mine.
I decided before my daughter was born that I wasn’t going to load my iPod or CD player up with kid music. I’m not down with Barney’s Greatest Hits — and the fact that when I just googled that fat dinosaur, that exact album actually appeared on Amazon.com — makes me sick — albeit completely unsurprised. No Elmo sings Christmas, no Laurie Berkner and definitely no Sesame Street type of album. The last thing I can tolerate in my car is listening to Big Bird sing about his dumb teddy bear and his overgrown nest that’s sadly located next to a dumpster. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Sesame Street fan. I happen to think that to this day, no better show exists.
But have you ever tried listening to these characters sing in your car? It’s excruciating. It’s one thing when they’re on your TV and you have the visual aid there along with the singing, but it is an entirely different experience when it’s just the voice. I learned this the hard way after many a drive with friends with kids in the back seat.
Not for me.
Instead I play the kind of music I like to listen to. I censor of course; I’m not about to break out Eminems new album with my three year old in the car, but she is accustom to the likes of Jason Mraz — her new favorite song is If It Kills Me, she likes Madonna, Jack Johnson, Coldplay, loves Blackbird (the Sarah McLachlan version in this case), but she’s down with The Beatles, I mean who doesn’t love The White Album. Oh and recently I got her into some Frank Zappa and The White Stripes. The kid’s got good taste, what can I say? She appreciates a good guitar riff.
Anyway, it’s not like we forbid kids songs, she knows them all. She will happily break out into song at any given moment. She takes requests and if you’re lucky, she’ll even throw in a dance move or two. I don’t discourage all the kid standards I just refuse to listen to them in my car — and I think she’s a better kid for it. Her music experience, in my opinion, has been educational. She likes to know who sings what and what the songs are about and a lot of times she’ll get really into the story behind the song.
So for all you Wiggles-infested cars out there… my condolences.
Going Parental appears every Thursday. My daughter appears every day between the hours of 6:30am and 8:30pm.
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I agree. I have never played children’s music in my car and my children get excited to hear Dave Matthews and Coldplay!!
Totally agree. Liam is a big Oasis fan – but I think mainly because the lead singer is also called Liam, than for the music itself!
However, I have to admit to playing a lot of Laurie in the past, and actually liking her myself. Well until I overheard Liam’s cousin tell him “your mom looks like Laurie Berkner”…ouch!
We started out with Lauri Berkner – we thought she was tolerable and drummed Buzz Buzz Buzz into our kids (partially because I think we liked flying them around the room!)… now my kids can sing every word to Piano Man by Billy Joel and New York, New York by Sinatra…. oh — and they heard Whole Hearted by Extreme (yes, I said Extreme) on the radio and are infatuated with that song now!
Soooooooooo…what do you do when the mother of the children love Kelly Clarkson, Brittney Spears, Taylor Swift (made B Love dance to Romeo and Juliet at a wedding this past weekend, only ones dancing), and Miley Cyrus??? HMMMMMM….Thoughts? Wouldn’t you encourage their music in the car for their sake?
You should be sending all your condolences my way. My car is like a 2 year old total request live session of every horrendous muppet out there. I must change this or teach the kid to use headphones. Although funny that you mention eminem bc she loves Rock Star. AND we are going to the freakin wiggles concert this weekend! shoot me. Its my own fault! Hopefully, i can dig our way out of the elmo and friends hole…
Nice job… get her to dig Round Here… the long version :o)
Oh she loves Counting Crows. She likes Rain King – of course – anything with kings and queens is a no brainer. And she never fails to mention at least 30 times during the song that “this guy” may be the rain king, but SHE is definitely the rain queen, or I should say, the rain princess.
CUTE!!! love her. I forgot to say… again, I dont have kids, but my sister (god bless her dumb soul) never put kid music on in the car. Justin was always singing along to Maroon 5 or The Fray… def not kid music, but z100 music, which sometimes is worse ;o)