On the way home from a friend's house this afternoon, we were all listening to a CD of my son's children's songs. He's really into dancing lately, so if he's in the car or at home, he's usually bopping along to music, either external or internal, or he's singing. Anyway, the words of childhood songs I used to listen to have changed drastically - they've become PC to an almost ridiculous degree. Case in point: the song about the baby bumblebee (I'm picking up a baby bumble bee - won't my mommy be so proud of me?, etc.). For some reason it drives me nuts that they've taken the part out about squashing the bumble bee. I did research to find out why and apparently the creators of the CD are trying to teach sharing, kindness and nonviolence, so any references to squashing a living creature have been removed. Doesn't matter if it's a bug or what - they're gone.
I've also noticed that any music or toy for a toddler or below now has some sort of messaging about its developmental virtues. While I do appreciate that kids need to play for stimulation, all this developmental crap gets old. Really old. Not every moment of my child's life needs to be seen as a developmental opportunity that needs to be capitalized upon. He's not going to be scarred or lose brain cells if I don't work constantly with him to ensure he learns X, Y and Z or talk constantly about sharing.
I'm turning into a curmudgeon. Or perhaps I'm just lazy. Yes, I realize that pre-school is not what it was when I was younger. He's likely going to need to know a lot more than I ever did at his age - he already knows much more than I did. Still, there are some aspects of parenting today that I truly don't appreciate. And this huge emphasis on sugar-sweetness and development of superchildren is one of them. (Okay, it's two of them, but who's counting?)
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