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 [1], The Bee Gees [2], The Carpenters [3], Simon and Garfunkel [4], and yeah there was some Neil Diamond [5] in the mix too were a part of our daily routine. I’m not gonna lie, I knew all the words to America [6]. 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 [7] — and the fact that when I just googled that fat dinosaur, that exact album actually appeared on Amazon.com [8] — makes me sick — albeit completely unsurprised. No Elmo sings Christmas, no Laurie Berkner [9] and definitely no Sesame Street [10]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 [11] new album with my three year old in the car, but she is accustom to the likes of Jason Mraz [12] — her new favorite song is If It Kills Me [13], she likes Madonna [14], Jack Johnson [15], Coldplay [16], loves Blackbird [17] (the Sarah McLachlan [18] version in this case), but she’s down with The Beatles, I mean who doesn’t love The White Album [19]. Oh and recently I got her into some Frank Zappa [20] and The White Stripes [21]. 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 [22] 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 [23]-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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Jaclyn Roth [26]
Latest posts by Jaclyn Roth (Posts [27])
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