top of page
officiallyduckingb

Previously Feral, now Parent?

Just me sitting here, listening to my music playlist drowning in nostalgia of my youth gone in the wind while thinking about something to write about. Singing along a little.. "if I, wanna take a guy, home with me tonight, it's none of your business" ( SNP1993). Just sitting with the dogs humming along..."all that she wants is another baby, She's gone tomorrow boy" (Ace of Base 1992). It finally hit me after I finished belting out ...."I don't want, anybody else, when I think about you I touch myself" ( Divinyls 1990). At best, I was 12 years old when I was singing into the hairbrush to the Divinyls and Salt N Pepa amongst other magical melodies. I was 9 when I asked for (and received) the Pornograffitti album by Extreme (who didn't love More Than Words?). Should we talk about 80's Madonna? Nah. ( "Like a virgin, Touched for the very first time" (1984) or "Experience has made me rich and now they're after me-e" (1984)). How about "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun" (Sir Mix-A-Lot 1992)? Or "I'm a loser baybay, so why don't you kill me"? (Beck 1993).

There were some really catchy songs and some absolutely amazing artists that graced us with great and magical things from the 80's and 90's. From Michael Jackson to George Michael to N.W.A.; the Eurythmics, the Bangles and Metallica. Throw in some Alanis, a dash of 2Pac and Biggie, with a sprinkle of Nirvana. Ugh, I mean the list can really go on and on my friend. Then the mid to late 90's, we all knew it was dark and hell is hot, "like what, hittin' it raw dogg in the butt" (DMX 1999) "if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends" (Spice Girls 1996), "Baby when we're grinding, I get so excited, Ooh how I like it, try but I can't fight it" (Next 1998), "I'm sorry that you Seem to be confused He belongs to me The boy is mine" (Brandy & Monica 1998), " Chances thrown, Nothings free, Longing for, used to be" (Offspring (1999), "I did it all for the nookie come on, the nookie come on, so you can take that cookie and stick it up your yeah" (Limp Bizkit 1999). Music was just... so expressive. Such a wild and creative time in music to grow up in. But every generation has rule breakers, boundary bouncers and fantastic musical paths to travel along.

For us late 70s/early 80s kids, it was a dream across all the genres. There was musical magic to be had across all the radio stations. Do you know what all of this wonderful music had in common? We had absolutely no business knowing every word to all these songs. Our little assess should have been listening to, I don't even know what but none of this was it. We did and most of us still do, know every word to every song we belted out in our youth gone wild. (I certainly do)

Now the irony in all this memory lane walking, we've turned into the parents who are completely aghast at music (W.A.P anyone?), movies (Aquaman II has cuss words 😯) and television (it is really interesting what they let fly on TV these days tho). The horror we express over what kids are being exposed to when we were doing too much (I can still belt out every word to Akinyele Put It In Your Mouth circa 1996). To add insult to injury, these new generation of kids, the ones we are protecting from Unholy (Sam Smith) and Body (Megan Thee Stallion), are plugged into the internet for at least 6 hours a day with this new technology based school we are participating in. You think that they are not traveling off into the Google or YouTube? Stop it. Now that is a whole other level of that river over there....denial.

Don't get me twisted, I'm not saying that we shouldn't monitor what are kids are doing out in the great wide open that is the internet. I'm not saying that we shouldn't try and tone down what they know, watch, listen to and see and try to keep it age appropriate. I am saying though that we have zero room to clutch our pearls when we were also doing all the things. There is a happy medium. Communication is also a major player in what our next generation is exposed to, knowing they can come to you with any and everything is HUGE. The knowledge at their fingertips is immense. Explain to them why - the question doesn't matter. Explain to them the things they are going to see, hear and learn. Desensitize them. Listen, duck is my favorite word. I curse like a sailor but my kids sure don't. They do know the words, the meanings and context, and it does help them judge who they want to be around while out to navigate the world alone at school.

I'm not, nor do I claim to be a perfect parent. But we do what we think is best with the tools and knowledge we have. We try and prepare our kids for the real world to be good, productive humans. Fake outrage and pearl clutching over ship we did as kids isn't it for me. If you've read this far, thanks for sitting around my soapbox. Go blast some Eminem and dance around like a fool. Happy Parenting friends!

9 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

We've been a little quiet lately...

Hi Friends and Followers! I know we have been a little quiet lately on the Bullship front but that is because we have been working on...

The Interwebs We Weave

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – The advancement of the internet and social media was the absolute downfall of society. Now...

Drowning in the Dating Puddle

Dating, or trying to date; Trying to see if you can build a life with another human being. Well shit. I haven't dated in a hundred years....

Comments


bottom of page