Do you know what? I may not be a terribly laid back person in general (high mantenance is what my husband calls it) but I do think I’m an easy going and lenient parent when it comes to most things…

I try to see things from their point of view and remember how I felt when I was little. I also try very hard to just be a bit cool and not embarrass them in front of their friends – I probably fail terribly but I DO make the effort at least. For instance, we had a pal over the other day and she asked if we could get the paddling pool out. It was pissing down and grey so obviously the LAST thing I WANTED to do but I just thought, ‘oh why say no’? I HATED it when my Mum said no if my friends were over and it wasn’t a big deal so… ‘yeah, go on then’ I decided.

I don’t actually have that many rules either truth be told… I could count them on one hand in fact, I’m a firm believer in letting the little things go a touch and concentrating on the big when they arise instead. As a result I reckon my children are more responsive to the laws that I DO lay down and they’re very well behaved!

• No iPads before we’re dressed and ready for school (but when they’re done with breakfast and spotless then the go ahead is given).
• No chocolate based cereal on a week day (this is new and they don’t like it).
• Two toys out, two toys away (this one can lapse a little).
• No pooing in the bath (I mean you’d think it was standard but I have HAD to make it a rule – boys)!

I mean I DO say other things, of course I do! Like… ‘Eat all your vegetables or there’s no pudding’ but then there always is – I can’t ever resist pudding. Or ‘No sleeping in Mummy and Daddy’s bed’ but then when a little hand pulls at my arm in the middle of the night, of course I draw them in for a cuddle and let them fall back asleep next to us. I’m a bit of a softie!

And I want to be a softie. I like being a softie but there’s one area I just CAN’T be a softie in and it’s upsetting me greatly!

The MUSIC they listen to!

I love music and I adore that my children do too. With a musican Father I guess they were always destined to be musos and their taste is quite ecclectic. They like the stuff that we like because they were brought up with it but they also like other stuff that they’ve discovered on their own. This is great, I love that they find inspiration in songs and tunes they fall in love with but… Gosh LOADS of it simply isn’t suitable!

Lily Allen was discovered a few months ago and I don’t blame the kids for loving her tunes, I do too but boy… Those lyrics are something else! I had to explain that we could only listen or watch if it said ‘clean version’? Which was tricky but Florence understood, is a sensible girl and knows that if it doesn’t say clean then it’s not for children.

But that’s Lily Allen and I don’t think her market is primarily little girls… I was aware instantly that I KNEW the reputation and I KNEW I had to put some sort of rule on it. We nipped it in the bud and it was fine. What I wasn’t prepared for was the likes of Meghan Trainor and Katy BLOODY Perry!

Now MT and KP are just two in a line of tween girl heroes but it’s them I’m going to focus on because it’s them who have upset me so much recently.

We ALL know that their music is shit, this is not new news.They’re marketed at girls under the age of ten for a reason as no one with any ounce of musical taste would listen to the likes. Musician of the year they may not be but little girls adore them all the same, want to be like them (hopefully a phase) and think they’re just a bit glam and glittery and fun – so I THOUGHT they had a place! They get played at the school disco, in holiday camps, everywhere where little girls want to dance and it should be harmless. I ASSUMED it was harmless!

I didn’t really pay much attention to the lyrics if I’m honest. I mean they’re just drivel and pap clearly but Florence likes it so you know, I couldn’t really see the harm and this is my downfall. Because Meghan Trainor and Katy Perry make appearances on Kid’s TV and are promoted solely to a tween market I assumed they would be suitable.

But then you know what they say about assuming…

I’m ashamed to admit that it wasn’t until Florence had her head phones on the other day and was singing out loud that I really got to grips with what these silly, silly, SILLY women are actually saying in their ‘songs’! I thought we’d come a long way with showing that women are strong, independent and own their own self worth and back in the 90s I swear music was all about empowering girls and showing them they can be who they want to be.

But… without trampling over anyone else. Without bowing down to men. Without showing themselves up, humiliating themselves, behaving badly and being a general twat! We’ve a lot to thank the Spice Girls for as they set off a snowball with their Girl Power but now? What we have now is the likes of Katy Perry and Meghan Trainor, not only wakiing around dressed as sluts but proudly showing they are indeed proud to BE sluts or at least pretend to BE sluts by singing about it with a smile on their sickening little faces that are pouting with pink glossy lips and wide glistening eyes as they look to camera.

They’re walking talking (overtly sexual) dolls delivering the message that it’s ok to be loose, drunk, and or relient on a man. How has this slipped through? Why are we letting our little girls listen? Meghan Trainor sings a song which is an open letter to her future husband… I find this notion tough to swallow in the first place but, although she does go on to contradict herself quite a few times in other verses, the very first one includes these lines:

Take me on a date
I deserve it, babe
And don’t forget the flowers every anniversary
‘Cause if you’ll treat me right
I’ll be the perfect wife
Buying groceries
Buy-buying what you need

Well… Cheers for that chick! Meghan, you brainless wonder! IF you wrote your own lyrics then shame on you and IF someone else wrote them for you but you were too stupid to realise how damaging they are then even more shame on you. Go back into a little hole with that future husband of yours and please don’t come back out!

But she’s not the worst of the pair by any stretch! Oh no siree! If you thought that was bad then check out these Katy Perry lyrics. I kind of wanted to show you just a few and not print the whole song but… Blooming heck, they get worse and worse as the song goes on and I HAD to include them. THIS is what my little girl was singing this morning and THESE horrible words escaped from my innocent babe’s mouth. Thankfully she doesn’t understand their implications. I don’t think. I hope…

If you can’t bear to read the whole song below then here’s a little re-cap:

The song lyrics to the Katy Perry song Last Friday Night depict the story of a girl (Katy Perry I assume) who went to a bar, did too many shots, got into debt spending too much money, broke the law, watched her friends get so drunk they actually blacked out (then she did too), went home with a guy she doesn’t know, had a threesome and woke up with this stranger in her bed and a hang over that made her smell like a mini bar before deciding to do it all over again.

FOR FUCK’S SAKE KATY PERRY! FOR FUCK’S SAKE!

Katy Perry – Last Friday Night

There’s a stranger in my bed,
There’s a pounding in my head
Glitter all over the room
Pink flamingos in the pool
I smell like a minibar
DJ’s passed out in the yard
Barbie’s on the barbeque
This a hickie or a bruise

Pictures of last night
Ended up online
I’m screwed
Oh well
It’s a blacked out blur
But I’m pretty sure it ruled
Damn

Last Friday night
Yeah, we danced on tabletops
And we took too many shots
Think we kissed but I forgot

Last Friday night
Yeah, we maxed our credit cards
And got kicked out of the bar
So we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night
We went streaking in the park
Skinny dipping in the dark
Then had a ménage à trois
Last Friday night
Yeah I think we broke the law
Always say we’re gonna stop
Op-oh-oh

This Friday night
Do it all again
This Friday night
Do it all again

Trying to connect the dots
Don’t know what to tell my boss
Think the city towed my car
Chandelier is on the floor
Ripped my favorite party dress
Warrant’s out for my arrest
Think I need a ginger ale
That was such an epic fail

Pictures of last night
Ended up online
I’m screwed
Oh well
It’s a blacked out blur
But I’m pretty sure it ruled
Damn

Last Friday night
Yeah, we danced on table tops
And we took too many shots
Think we kissed but I forgot

Last Friday night
Yeah, we maxed our credit cards
And got kicked out of the bar
So we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night
We went streaking in the park
Skinny dipping in the dark
Then had a ménage à trois

Last Friday night
Yeah I think we broke the law
Always say we’re gonna stop
Oh whoa oh

This Friday night
Do it all again
(Do it all again)
This Friday night
Do it all again
(Do it all again)
This Friday night

T.G.I.F.
T.G.I.F.
T.G.I.F.
T.G.I.F.
T.G.I.F.
T.G.I.F.

Last Friday night
Yeah, we danced on table tops
And we took too many shots
Think we kissed but I forgot

Last Friday night
Yeah, we maxed our credit cards
And got kicked out of the bar
So we hit the boulevard

Last Friday night
We went streaking in the park
Skinny dipping in the dark
Then had a ménage à trois

Last Friday night
Yeah I think we broke the law
Always say we’re gonna stop
Oh-whoa-oh
This Friday night
Do it all again

 

So basically this song depicts the story of a girl (Katy Perry I assume) who went to a bar, did too many shots, got into debt spending too much money, broke the law, watched her friends get so drunk they actually blacked out (then she did too), went home with a guy she doesn’t know and woke up with this stranger in her bed and a hang over that made her smell like a mini bar then decided to do it all over again.