So I want to turn this blog into something more than just recounting our lives for the folks back home. It's going to be about my thoughts and the kids and everything in between. My 'personal' blog, outside of politics and Europe and all that.I have been trying to turn my children on to music. I do this when I have to work and am bored and the laptop is on. I go to YouTube, search for some of my favorite videos, and play them for Anna and Marta.
The only problem is that 20th century pop and rock music is really complicated and often too scary for little kids. I forget that their minds are so soft and malleable. So when I put on a video of Peter Tosh (above right) singing "Stepping Razor" in 1979, I forgot that to most people today, Peter Tosh looks absolutely crazy.
First of all, he's got dreadlocks. Then there's the big joint hanging out of his mouth. He's dancing crazy on stage backed by a whole band of dangerous looking dudes singing "I am like a stepping razor, better watch my side, I am dangerous, I'm dangerous."
So Tosh isn't family friendly. But who could be more family friendly and still enjoyable. You know? Perfect for the Disney channel on a Sunday morning? Bob Marley, Tosh's old band mate. So I put on "Kinky Reggae", and again it was just too complicated for their young minds to digest. I really think Anna was going to just pass out or something. Marley may have fathered 13 kids, but his music was still a bit too heavy for my daughties.
Finally, I decided that I needed something safe and normal. Something anybody would put on at a party. The kind of stuff I heard as a kid. And I grew up to be perfectly normal, right? (sound of crickets chirping). I decided to reach for The Rolling Stones singing "Harlem Shuffle" from 1985, definitely a song I heard when I was a kid, a song I was not afraid of.
Yet when Mick Jagger started singing "Move it to the right, yeah, yeah" I realized that I didn't want to let my offspring anywhere near Sir Mick and his gyrating hips, let alone his 80s mullet.
Am I just really conservative, or are Marley, Tosh, and Jagger just not children's entertainment material.
I'll tell you something interesting. Marta cannot watch Spongebob Squarepants. I love that show. It's filled with little hyperactive inside jokes. But she prefers Baby TV. It's just happy music and stories about lambs and butterflies and good, wholesome things of that nature. And definitely no Peter Tosh, and certainly no Sir Mick.I am personally getting a little sick of Baby TV and Barbie. I am starting to really loathe Barbie. Marta keeps dressing up and coming up to me and saying, "Look, I am a beautiful princess." And I tell her she is always beautiful, that she doesn't need to dress up. But she doesn't get it. She's being brainwashed by idiotic Barbie.
Oh well. Better Barbie than Bratz. Right? Barbie is superficial but well-meaning. Bratz are just 'ho-models'.
I try to encourage better programming like Charlie and Lola or Fraggle Rock. But all else pales to Barbie. It's like crack for little girls. Shame on you Barbie. Shame. On. You.
4 comments:
She, Marta loves "girl music".
We began calling it that when she was very small and we would be driving in the car together..
She seems to have this connection to Stevie Nicks..
Others as well but....
One day Landslide came on the radio
and she sang & hummed so loud to the entire song.
It was almost as if she was trying to remember the words....
I won't get into my "old soul"
theory.
Barbie Princess is better then Bratz..
I along with others here in New York think they are disgusting.
I never thought that I would ever buy a Barbie but there was that summer day at a flea market when she looked at a box of old Barbies and said "Mimi I need these "girls"."
At first I was horrified but as any grandmother/Mimi would do I soon acquiesced and another Barbie fan was born...
I have the photo of that exact moment.
Well, little girls tend to love butterflies, flowers, pink and happy music. At least the 3-year-old one I look after. I guess it's their way of making themselves happy :) And to protect themselves from the bad rock world :D
I remember the flea market day, we paid 5 dollars for 3 dolls and I wrote a short story of that day. Later on, she was playing quite a bit with these Barbies and i wrote another story. Now she has two left,... the brunette one lost her head, unfortunately...;(
Actually, there are very nice kids program on BBC Prime every morning from... 6 am to 10 am. My 2 yr old son loves it and already hums songs in english, he especially likes balamory tune.
We also sometimes cook on the big cook little cook recepies for breakfast or weekends :).
imho, BabyTV is simply boring most of the time...
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