You may remember a few weeks ago when my daughter called me a bad word and I almost cried (that bad word was ma'am, btw). I was really not prepared for the onslaught of other objectionable things that an almost-3-year-old might say to her mom, but this conversation in the car yesterday really caught me off-guard. Let me just say first that my tape player in the car is broken again (yes I have a tape player, I made my husband have one put in so that I can listen to mixtapes, this important point deserves more explanation that I care to provide right now), so we were listening to pop radio, which we occasionally do on the way to the gym when I'm totally over the usual NPR news radio spiel. Anyway, the exchange went something like this:
song comes onto the radio...
Stenni: Mama, did you listen to this when you were little?
Me: Listen to what? The radio?
Stenni: No. This Taylor Swift girl song.
Me: No, she wasn't even alive yet when mama was little. I don't really like Taylor Swift. Wait, how did you know who this is?
Stenni: Oh, well because I like it. *sings along, thankfully the wrong words at least*
Me: sobbing silently in driver's seat
I know that this is another small stumble in the grand scheme of things. It could even be partially my fault for the occasional Z100 on our morning drives. I suppose that Taylor Swift songs are even made for little girls (she's practically still a toddler herself, and certainly sounds like one). But eeeew. And my little Stenni usually has such good taste in music. Her favorites, she tells me, are the Flaming Lips (I approve), the Beach Boys (ditto), and her papa (how cute). Mercifully, Ms. Swift does not crack the top 3. But how long until that changes? I think I'm struggling with how little influence I actually have over this independent little person's changing tastes. Also I'm wrestling with my apparent failure as a parent and also reasonable human being for allowing this to happen! Eegads!
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