Do you censor what your children listen to... and......

[laura001]

I censor very little with my kids, the youngest is 14. As far as music, well, they are going to hear it anywhere including the shopping mall, good or bad, I hope that I have instilled enough common sense into my kids so that they make the right choices. I think the schools go way overboard far too many times to keep a very small minority of parents happy, realizing though that there is some need for structure, but let's not get carried away.

I think it is far worse when you see some of the crap on tv., these cartoons with stuey or whoever he is. Now that is ridiculous!

 

[nwdisgal]

I don't censor what my teenage DD listens to, just as my mom didn't censor me from listening to my Ted Nugent album when I was DD's age. My grandma, on the other hand, censored my mom from going to Frank Sinatra concerts, because he was, in my grandmother's opinion, "too edgy" and "attracted the wrong kind of girl" to his concerts. Just goes to show you how controversial music has changed over time.

I do respect that some people don't want their kids hearing certain lyrics and why the highschool may feel they need to censor their music selection at the dance. That said, good luck with your selection! You may have to wind back the clock about fifty years to find a proliferation of clean music. I guess one way to get around it is to have a 50's themed dance Then you could play almost any record - except maybe Elvis.

 

[mommaU4]

Just found this thread and thought I'd throw my 2 cents into the mix....

I don't censor what my 2 oldest listen to. In fact my DS's favorite is Eminem and that's okay with me. In fact my kids and I like alot of the same music.

I will say that all the swear words in the world don't bother me. Shoot they've probably heard most of them coming from my own mouth at one time or another! (My personal bad habit. Don't drink, don't smoke, but curse like a sailor)

What does concern me more is lyrics that talk about hurting/abusing women. Either physically or verbally. That bothers me. But I still don't censor it. Instead we talk about it and I use it as a chance to voice my thoughts on issues like that. So there you have it.

 

[ntburns22]

My son is 4. I don't ever change the radio station in the car because of a song that comes on (we usually listen to classic rock/adult contemporary/top 40 stuff) regardless of what the song is about. My parents didn't either, and heck I didn't even know what most lyrics meant when I was a kid, I just liked the songs.

However, there are certain CD's, such as Kid Rock, which has a lot of "bad words" and stuff, around my son. I just don't want him picking up that language.

Ditto here. DD6 DS2

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

I find a lot of the stuff degrading to women. That was my first eyeopener. Most of the "tunes" don't give guys any identification other than a rage of hormones waiting to attack. Date Rape? C'mon, she wants it! Then there is all the glorification of guns and drugs. Sounds like a mirror of all the bad stuff we read about in the paper. Is it any wonder that our society is in the mess it is in? And most here find it is no big deal to allow our kids to mindlessly sing along to this poison?

So, to the original Q. I don't allow DS to listen at home. I am not naive, I know he hears a lot of it anyway. We do talk about it and I tell him that I know I can't prevent him from hearing it, but I hope that he has an understanding of what the problem is with it. I guess the big difference for me is that the "controversial" music I listened to as a kid did not glorify acts of violence against other people. (Smack Water Jack notwithstanding )

 

[dixipixi]

It's always been kinda hard for me to do any censoring. I have stepkids (now 19 and 17). They were 5 and 3 when DH and I started dating. You can't change the rules they live with all week when they're only at your house for the weekend.

Well, DH and I have one son together (he's now 12). So the rules always were that they couldn't listen to anything explicit around him. They could listen to their music only with earphones and they could not leave it where he could get it.

DS is currently "pushing his boundaries" and listening to more stuff that I don't like. I told him that anything that he hears and doesn't understand, he has to come to me and ask. After a few of those "embarassing encounters", he has learned that it's not really that much fun and a lot of the lyrics to the songs are "just plain stupid".

I have always tried to be open minded about their stuff and in return they have to open minded about mine. They have learned that 3 minutes of hard core vulgarity is no match for 15 minutes of classical, opera, bluegrass, folk, etc.

 

[Feralpeg]

No, but I'm aware of what she is watching. If it were something I thought inappropriate, we would talk about it. I'm lucky in that DD's taste in TV, movies, books and music is very close to my own. We watch a ton of TV and movies together. My biggest problem is that she is constantly taking my CDs. I haven't seen my Journey or Queen CDs in two years!

 

[nwdisgal]

Yep DD and I have similiar music taste. She downloads alot of my music off my IPOD. The only music I don't like is that Rap Crap (as I call it). If DD puts that stuff on, I make her change the channel because I can't stand the sound of it.

 

[aprilgail2]

My Humps is on the DNP list.

\\We went to a make a wish halloweeen party and they played that there...I HATE that song.