Not so fast

I'm a little overprotective.

I have a wide age range here, preteen to toddler.  I have to keep things in the middle, so the older kids can have a grasp of popular culture while I try to preserve the "little" for my younger two.  It's not easy, but I think I manage okay. 

Imagine my surprise, to hear this from my little princess, complete with body/head swaying in time, last night.  Hum along, and you'll know the song.

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.....mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmmm..."

I don't own the CD, I don't do hip-hop radio (much) and yet, here she is, humming the Blackeyed Peas.   Yeah, yeah, it's just music, but I just don't think it's appropriate for my three-year old.  At least she doesn't know the words.

In a world of Bratz, mermaid Barbies that come pre-loaded with tattoos, and low-rise-let-it-all-hang-out pants ("Mommy?  Why are her pants so small?" as she sees an errant buttcrack in the mall) it's really hard to keep her, for want of a better word, unexposed. 

I don't expect to shield any of them from the world forever, I just can't believe how some things are so pervasive, that even a minor thing like a cell phone commercial can imprint on her little brain.

I don't remember it being so hard with the boys, when they were small, but now as they are growing up...

My oldest got really mad at me one day, because I will restrict their video games, they aren't allowed to play anything with an M rating, and I check out the T (teen) titles.  He was ranting about how all his friends get to do it, of course.  I do it with movies, and tv shows too, to a certain extent.  Between that and his irritation that I won't give him free rein to curse, somedays I am not so popular.  "But I'm the only kid in my class that can't ______ (insert golden privilege here)."

That day, I told him that I am only responsible for him, not his friends, and he has to respect that sometimes my wishes and his/theirs will not match...I went on for a minute, trying to get him to understand, until finally I got mad and said, "Forgive me, forgive me for treating you like the child that you are.  You're twelve, not twenty-two."  (Oh, yeah, he rolled his eyes, but I shushed him before he could get out "MO-OM!")

My brother nearly fell of the couch, eager to pass his judgement on how I was overdoing it.  Until I pointed out to him and reminded him of the trouble he was getting into at that same age, and he told me to shut up.   (That's what I thought.) 

There's nothing wrong with not wanting them to grow up too fast.  Like I tell my oldest, especially, you only get time to be a kid once, and once you see the world from an adult perspective, there is no going back to that innocence, that blissful ignorance of some things, so enjoy it.

I'm restrictive and overprotective because I am trying to save this time for them as long as I can, I told him, and if I have to be the meanest Mommy in the world in their  eyes to do it, then oh, well.   

"Then when I'm a grown up, I'm gonna...."  I interrupted him.  "When you are a what ??"  That took the wind right out of his sails.  "Grownup."  "Exactly."

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.....mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm...

Yeah, it's a got a catchy beat, but I just can't always dance to it.