A reminder that life is short

We were at the playground the other day when I saw the words on the right scrawled into the playset.

I'm 37; I realize people die. I realize my kids will grow up to learn and hear about all types of awful things and also live to be a relatively well adjusted 37 year old.

But this play set is at an elementary school.

An elementary school.

At a high school, sure, I can see that. Believe it or not, 18 years is a long time and things happen during long times. By graduation my class had lost 2 students that I can recall. One to murder and one to health.

But this was an elementary school.

Its funny, because a few short days later the entire interwebs blew up about the inappropriateness of a dance Miley Cyrus did during what amounts to a celebration of inappropriateness.

But people were asking how they could explain Miley to their kids, their daughters.

Honestly? If yours kid witnessed Miley's dance that night, her dance was probably about the 35th thing you need to explain. The words "Dick in a Box" were said without beeping during a portion of the show. Is it simply that Miley was a Disney child star that causes us to freak out about a poorly executed dance done at a show full of wiggling, half-naked women and videos portraying such things?

Because last I checked "Bringing Sexy Back" wasn't a wholesome song about returning a lost puppy to its home. One of the live acts was indecipherable because every third word was bleeped. That is OK and won't need explaining, but Miley, well, that's an issue? As my wife pointed out - Miley's dance occurred during a song - Blurred Lines - that talks about making bad choices after drinking alcohol. So, borderline rape you don't need to discuss; twerking and tongue wagging, though, that requires explanation?

I guess what I'm saying is this RIP on an elementary school play thing got me thinking. For the last two years my kids have largely lived in a world I've created. They know only what I introduce to them. They take in the outside world, but their minds are't even really developed enough to conjure up evil.

But that isn't going to last. Talk about blurred lines: The ones separating my perfectly unaware little ones and the real world are blurring. Today they don't notice that RIP graffiti. Tomorrow they might; and they might want to know what it means. What will I tell them? What can I tell them?

Comments

Is Mocking Redheads Bullying? If Not, What Is?

Its Super Bowl time, and since my team didn't make it, I haven't been paying very close attention. But I got to talking with Aaron Gouveia on Twitter after I noticed one of his tweets about how a redhead would never QB a team to said Super Bowl. Essentially, Aaron was mocking redheads. My team doesn't have a redheaded QB, so we are safe (for now!), but I mentioned to him that this might fall under the term of bullying. Aaron, in case you don't know, is rightfully well known in the Daddy-bloggersphere for his excellent Daddy Files blog. Seriously, go read it now, and follow @DaddyFiles on Twitter. And before I really get going on this rant, let me say: I get it. Even as great as Gouveia is, he probably can't hold candle to the prestige, money and social status of a Pro-Bowl NFL player like Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton could never do another thing in the NFL and probably still have more name recognition, money and power than Gouveia ever will. This isn't e

NIGHTMARE: Three Kids; One Invite

Its a triplet parents worst nightmare, really. I only have triplets, so most of what I;m about to say about singletons is conjecture and assumption, but here goes: I imagine that when you have three kids of different ages its easy when only one of them is invited to a birthday party. Any younger child is probably interested in where an older sibling is going, but is easily refocused. Older children probably just don't care what a younger child is doing, but to the extent they are invested, I'd think its easy to explain to them. After all, they are probably in different schools, or at least different grades. They have different teachers, different classmates, and while they may share some friends, those are largely different as well. Not so with triplets When you have three kids all the same age they attend the same school; often in the same class (as ours do). So when only one of them receives an invite, as our daughter did, its hard not to feel slighted. After all, t

My Kids Believe Some Wild Things

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. It is the holiday season, so this is going to be a quick and fun post. If you want something more serious, you can look my struggles with my daughter's self esteem here , my blah attitude about the death of cursive here , and why I'm a very bad person here . All kids believe in some clearly wild ideas. Santa. The tooth fairy. Heck, some parents believe vaccines cause disease, so its hard to blame the kids. But mine might be taking it to new levels. For instance, my one son will repeatedly tell me how I'm the best Dad he knows. Its sweet. And gosh, its hard to deny. But I'm also pretty much the only Dad he knows. I guess his other point of reference is the Dad from Peppa Pig. Have you seen that guy? He's a half shaven, rotound pig with the manners you might expect of such a guy. Its a bit surprising he isn't usually adorned with a can of beer in his hand and food stains on his clothing. This suddenly sounds li

Triple The Dad

Search This Blog