Thank You, Ralph. Thank You Very Much.

All these years I have avoided kids music on the grounds that it might make me tear my hair out...or worse. My kids have grown up listening to (and learning all the lyrics for) Bob Dylan, Rhianna (who Michael has a MAD crush on), Gwen Stefani, Led Zeppelin, Britney Spears, Bon Jovi and pretty much anything I like listening to. From time to time there is language or content that is maybe not totally appropriate, but at least I skip tracks like 'Gold Digger' and anything with a recognizable f-bomb. However, Justin Timberlakes' 'Sexy Back' is completely acceptable, just to give you a frame of reference. They have never used inappropriate language (besides saying 'penis' a lot, which I think is developmental) or even questioned anything they have heard while listening.

So a few weeks ago, Meg and I went with friends to see Ralph's World. We had seen him before, but never listen to his music at home and my friends were surprised to find that Meg was so unfamiliar with such a staple. Last week, I thought, you know, that music wasn't hair-rip-out worthy, so maybe I could get some. Give in to the kids music craze, as it were. I ordered two of his disks up off of Amazon and stuck one right in when they arrived. The first one was 'Happy Lemons' or something like that which has a song called 'What's New Pussycat.' Almost immediately, the kids CRACKED up and said, "Why is he saying PUSSYcat?!" They don't know at ALL the connotations of that word, and yet they found it hilarious. So for the past 24 hours, I have been hearing the following terms constantly: PUSSYcat, PUSSYmegan, PUSSYmommy, PUSSYmichael, PUSSY.

So Ralph Covert successfully corrupted my children's vocabulary with just one song. I no longer feel the need to defend my choice to allow my kids to sing Johnny Cash songs about cocaine and prison. Turn it up, Michael.