Meredith had a friend over on Friday night, and this was a Big Deal, because it was the first time we’ve ever had one of her friends over for the night. I picked the kids up from school, I took them straight to the theater to see Gnomeo and Juliet (which they loved and I sort of hated), and then we came back to the house for pizza. At about 8:00, the friend busted out Just Dance for the Wii, and the girls started dancing. I noticed that they spent a lot of time dancing to one song in particular, but I didn’t pay much attention to what the song was.
On Saturday night, Jeff told me that Meredith had purchased the song on iTunes and that I should listen to it, because when they listened to it in the car, it became clear pretty quickly that it’s not a song for a seven year old. Apparently, Ke$ha, who spells her name with a dollar sign because she’s awe$ome and has dirty feet, brushes her teeth with a bottle of Jack because when she leaves for the night she ain’t comin’ back. (She’s says she’s trying to get a little bit tipsy, and later boasts that boys are trying to touch her junk, but she’ll kick them to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger. Apparently, she doesn’t have a care in the world, because she has plenty of beer (along with the aforementioned bottle of Jack), and as long as the police don’t shut them down, the party don’t stop. Also, she’s going to fight until she sees the sunlight.)
My gut reaction was to immediately delete the song from Meredith’s iPod and replace it with the stupid Kidz Bop version. Hhhhhhhh. Deep down, I knew that was a crappy solution. Yesterday afternoon when Meredith wanted to listen to her iPod, I told her that I needed to talk to her for a bit.
Me: We need to talk about Tik Tok.
Meredith: What about it?
Me: Well, do you know how you talk at school about drugs and alcohol and how they’re not good and that it’s important to stay away from them if you want to stay smart and creative and healthy?
Meredith: Yes.
Me: I know you like the music behind Tik Tok, but the words are all about a girl who’s not so bright and she drinks a lot of alcohol and gets herself into trouble at a party and just sort of hopes that the police don’t show up.
Meredith: I didn’t get that, but I did hear her say that she was going to fight.
Me: Yep. She also wants to fight.
Harper: And she wants to brush her teeth with a bottle of Jack.
Me: Yes.
Meredith: That’s a dollar wasted.
We’ve deleted Ke$ha and replaced her with the Spanish version of a Selena Gomez song that we like. Selena may be kissing Justin Bieber, but at least she’s not singing songs about pouring vodka directly into her eyeballs. And if she IS, we won’t know, because my Spanish is a little rusty, and Meredith’s Spanish is limited to numbers and a few common phrases. Once again: Parenting is hard/easy.
