Culture Shock

Parenting is an awesome responsibility. The thought of shaping our children’s character, value system and moral fiber can be overwhelming at times – so it’s not surprising that I often worry if I’m doing a good job.

Take my latest issue, for example: I fear that our children may be a little too influenced by pop culture.

Sure, I held on during the Hannah Montana frenzy that grew to epic proportions with birthday party themes and purchasing CDs, DVDs and virtually every piece of merchandise with that tween’s name plastered on it. And I completely understood that valentines for the girls’ classes last week would not be cool unless they featured High School Musical or Kung Fu Panda. I even looked the other way when they knew all the words to Queen’s (a marginal role model at best) “We Will Rock You” – it plays on Radio Disney but thankfully, our daughters think the lyric is “kicking your cans all over the place” instead of the singular “can” which has a totally different meaning.

But some recent events have me worried. Welcome to my nightmare:

1. A few weeks ago, when the inaugural festivities were taking place in Washington, D.C., our daughters told me they wanted their dad to be president – but not because of the difference he could make in the lives of all Americans or the impact he could have on public policy. They wanted the Jonas Brothers to come sing for them in the White House.

2. I was going over our oldest daughter’s spelling words for the week with her and when I asked her to write down the spelling for “we” – as in “we go to the park” – she wrote down “Wii” – as in the video game she asked Santa to bring her at Christmas. (He didn’t, the loser.)

3. This morning on the way to school, I was reviewing the names of the 12 apostles with our firstborn so she could recite them all and get a lollipop in religion class today. The only way she could remember Simon was because he’s also a judge on American Idol.

I knew I’d screw it up.