This morning, I was driving 6YO and 3YO to school and daycare, as I do every morning. We recently got Sirius satellite radio, and when they’re in the car, I wisely choose not to listen to Howard Stern or uncensored comedy, because that would be bad parenting on a Britney Spears level. Instead, we listen to Radio Disney. Radio Disney plays current songs by crappy people like Hilary Duff and…um…I don’t know, usually some little boy or girl group who couldn’t carry a tune if it had velcro on it. The only reason I know who any of these faux singers are is because the Sirius radio has a display that tells me.

Today, The Cheetah Girls (?) were singing a remake of “Shake a Tail Feather” by Ray Charles. 6YO started singing along, and in my neverending quest to educate the boy, I mentioned that the song was an old song, and that this group didn’t make it.

Me: “Yeah, a man sang this song a long time ago.”
6YO: “Is this The Cheetah Girls, Daddy?”
Me (checking): “Uh, yeah, it IS The Cheetah Girls. Why?”
6YO: “I thought it was the Pussycat Dolls.” (OK, so I like to watch their videos. The lead singer’s a hottie! Sue me.)
Me: “Nope, it’s The Cheetah Girls. See the display? It says it right here.”
6YO: “OK, ’cause I really thought they said ‘pussy’.”

This is the moment of truth for parents. There are three possible reactions to this:

  1. Do nothing (but laugh like hell on the inside)
  2. Calmly tell him that he shouldn’t use that word
  3. Yell at him for using that word

I chose option 1. After all, ‘pussy’ IS a real word, and he didn’t mean it in a negative way when he said it. Besides, I really didn’t want to go into the explanation of WHY it’s a bad word sometimes. I’ll be sure to say that same thing to his teacher whenever she calls the inevitable parent-teacher conference, too.

Peace.