#1007. When pop culture comes home. (Or my kid learns Ke$ha.)

The other day, my seven-year-old L.E. said something to me:

“My friend at school taught me a new song. It’s called Tick Tock.”

Immediately I started thinking, “Please be the nursery rhyme, please be the nursery rhyme. Come on mother goose, Daddy really needs this to be the mother goose version and not Ke$ha.”

“Oh really? What are the lyrics L.E.?”

I then stood with nervous anticipation in the garage, hoping she was about to say:

“Tick tock, tick tock

Hickory dickory dock

the mouse ran up the clock”

Wouldn’t that have been adorable? I would have given her a licorice whip and sent her on her way with a pat on the head.

Instead, this is what she said:

Don’t stop, make it pop. DJ, blow my speakers up.

Tonight, I’ma fight
’til we see the sunlight.

Tick tock on the clock,
 but the party don’t stop, no ooo whoa

I resisted the urge to fall to my knees like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes and scream, “Ke$$$$$$$$$ha!!!” but just barely.

I finished loading the car, got both kids in their car seats and then pulled my wife aside quickly. “Hey, L.E. just sang the chorus to a Ke$ha song. Let’s talk to her about it in a few minutes when we’ve got a game plan.” I then went back inside the house to grab something and my wife got into the car. At which point she found L.E. teaching our 5 year old the lyrics. (The car seat conversation between kids is the original form of social media.)

There would be no “later,” we had to talk about it right away. We told L.E. that wasn’t an appropriate song for kids to be singing. We didn’t break down the lyrics or make it some sort of forbidden, mysterious thing she’d want to explore secretly when we’re not around. I tried to ignore the lie that she’ll become sheltered and go crazy in college if we actively monitor the things she digests as a kid. I’m not sure she’ll reflect back on that moment as a massive event in her childhood. But I will, because though I long ago committed to raising dorks, this was one of the first times pop culture had jumped into our house.

How would you have handled that?

How did your parents handle stuff like that when you were growing up?