My Part of Me

I am so mad right now.  I know I will get over it so I don’t want to make too big of a deal about this, but right now I am M.A.D.--Mad! 

So here’s the thing:  the summer camp my daughter attends took all the kids on a field trip today to see the Katy Perry movie.  No permission slips went out asking parents for permission. No arrangements were made at the summer camp for the kids whose parents didn’t want their children to see the movie—so, you either had to take off one day from work, or you get to spend the next week explaining why your daughter can't wear a shirt that shoots ice cream from her chest!  

I am angry on so many levels right now.  I don’t mean to start a debt about whether it is/or isn’t appropriate for a four year old to see (or listen to) Katy Perry—but as the mom, I get to make that decision for my daughter. My VERY impressionable daughter who can’t decide if she wants to be Mermaidia, Snow White or Barbie when she grows-up! (ugh!). 



Do kids still ride bikes?



I am angry that I had to pull my kid out of camp as everyone was lining up to leave, all happy and excited to be going on this fantastic, life altering field trip--because everything is life altering when you are four!  I hate that my kid asked why she was the only one not going and all I could come up with was, “Your Dad and I don’t think it is appropriate for someone your age.”  To which she counter—“But So-and-So, who is also four is going.”  Ahhh, of course!  Now I am going to have to use the blasted “Well, if So-and-So jumped off a cliff would you?” Am I really just mad because I am turning into my parents?!



I had blue hair (and every other primary color!), before Katy Perry sang her first song.  I had my head shaved before she was even born!  I am not afraid of her brand of pop culture.  But there does seem a time and a place and four just seems too young, and I am not ready to explain some things yet (maybe ever!).   Are we exposing our children too soon and expecting them to have the emotional, intellectual and social maturity and capacity to process what they are experiencing?  Is this what the new four looks like?