May 25, 2011

Trust and Respect

It's our parenting mantra. Trust the children to make the right choices and respect their decisions. I'm not always successful at it, but it is certainly the way I aspire to raise my kids. And I really love it when I get to see glimpses of my success.

I'm a huge fan of music of most kinds, as are Claire and Ben. I encourage them to listen to and appreciate music, whose lyrics I rarely censor because I don't believe in censorship. An artist puts lyrics to music in a way that describes what is meaningful to him or her, and I like to choose for myself whether or not they are appropriate. When a song comes on the radio that has a "bad" word in it, Claire just doesn't sing that part. Her choice.

With that in mind, HBO recently aired Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Concert, and neither the kids nor I had ever seen her perform. I prefaced the watching by telling them I did not know what the show would be like, but considering her provocative nature, we might have to turn it off. As the show progressed there were a lot of "wows" and "she's so weird, but I love her music" comments being passed around. I have to admit her whole sexual persona was a little embarrassing, in the way in which, at age 12, your DAD takes you to see Saturday Night Fever because you begged and begged and then you have to sit next to him during the sexy parts. Things were edgy but fairly appropriate until Lady Gaga came out wearing a see-through mini plastic dress, complete with bikini underwear and taped nipples, with a plastic nun's habit on her head. Ben looked at me and said "Okay, that's enough for me" and left the room. Claire and I almost made it through that song too, until we were overcome by gyrating pelvises and decided to shut her down.

Looks like I've been fighting the good fight. Good job Mama. For those of you who question my choice to let them watch Lady Gaga in the first place, just suck it :)

6 comments:

AngMomof3 said...

Good job, mama! I think that choice they made would be easy to respect! You have great kids.
Ironically I was just watching Gaga on Idol while I was reading your post. :) She's so crazy that she's intriguing!

Mark said...

Love, trust, respect. You are never too young for them. So cool to watch them make make good choices for themselves because it is who they are. Trust begets trust and respect begets respect, just like love begets love. Miss you guys!

Nancy A. said...

Great parents, great kids. Just keep them away from the THREE STOOGES (HAHA).

NancyS said...

great job Mom

Carrie said...

I love this way of parenting. Kids know right from wrong...and what's wrong for one person isn't always the case for all. I enjoy a good cuss word...haha!! Shaniko says Lady Gaga is a musical genius...I have to agree..her style reminds me of performers like Meatloaf who bring a theatrical side to their performances. I likey!!!

Crystalena82 said...

And this is why I love you! You have such an awesome attitude. :)

And, for the record, you closed with my most favorite phrase ever. Very admirable!