Oh, how we love it when our kids sing and dance. Can't get the video posted on YouTube fast enough. Look at how sweet they are! Look at those moves!
Prime example, this capital A-dorable video of a mini-Warbler wannabe, singing along to the Glee version of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream.
But, wait. Go beyond the ridiculous cuteness and consider what he's singing:
"Let's go all the way tonight. No regrets, Just love...The way you turn me on, I just can't sleep."
Hmmmm, perhaps a tad...unsuitable?
If your kid listens to any kind of popular music, you've undoubtedly encountered this. They sing what they hear on the radio. Heck, they sing what they hear us singing. And at younger ages, they don't really know what the lyrics mean, do they?
At our elementary school's recent Variety Show, there was the third grader who sang a pitch-perfect version of Usher's DJ's Got Us Falling In Love Again.
"Hands up when the music drops, we both put our hands up...Put your hands up on my body."
And the group of 4th grade girls who danced to Ke$ha's Tik Tok, with the words:
"Boys blowing up our phones, phones
Drop-Topping, playing our favorite CDs
Pulling to the parties
Trying to get a little bit tipsy
As one of the parent volunteers who helped organize the show, I admit we got some negative feedback from some school administrators over these songs. Each student had a consent form signed by a parent before they performed and we had made it clear they had to use the "clean" version of any song. That's as clean as Usher and Ke$ha get.
I suppose it would be easy to be puritanical about song lyrics and shield our kids by only letting them listen to Kidz Bop versions of songs. Easy, but not very realistic. (And super annoying. Have you heard those voices on Kidz' Bop?)
What do you do think? Do you worry about your young kids being exposed to inappropriate song lyrics? How do you deal with it?