Spheres of influence

Last night my lovable, goofy son managed to make me a little sad that he's getting older and growing up. I was helping him get his backpack ready for school in the morning and he was kind of singing to himself, so at first I didn't catch on to the words coming out of his mouth. But then he repeated it, a bit louder, and I just stopped what I was doing and stood there for a minute, a little surprised. I couldn't quite belive what I'd heard so I asked him to repeat it again. Then, since I knew I couldn't be the only one to have to bear witness to the corruption of my impressionable child, I asked him to go in the living room and sing it to his dad. Apparently, the song wasn't enough - he had to get into character for this "performance". So, what song was my darling first grader singing, decked out in gold mardi gras beads, a backwards ball cap and oversized sunglasses? Flo-Rida's "Low". The part where the lyrics go "Shawty had them apple bottom jeans (jeans)/Boots with the fur (with the fur)/The whole club was lookin at her/She hit the flo (she hit the flo)/Next thing u kno/Shawty got low low low low low low low low".

I had to look the lyrics up - I thought that song was by Usher. As you can probably figure, my husband and I aren't huge fans of hip hop (my son gets his love of "rocking out" and playing air guitar from his father's collection of classic rock and hair band music...he gets his fondness for They Might Be Giants from yours truly). After that delightful display (complete with dance moves, to boot), we had to ask where he picked that routine up. We figured it would have been in his after school program. But we were wrong. The little friend that he sits with at lunch taught him the song and the moves, as well as introducing him to that exaggerated hip hop style that he is treating as a costume - so far. I had to give my son a small lecture about how some things are for kids and some things - like that song- really aren't, just to make myself feel like I was having a positive affect on a kid who will now be more greatly influenced by his peers than by his parents. It's bad enough he's been asking for a skateboard for months, and has started to gravitate towards clothes that I see mini skater punks twice his age wearing. I'm losing my kid to the inexorable influence of the wider world. I'll just have to work even harder to instill good judgement in him, now. But I draw the line at saggy, drawer-bearing pants and hypersexualized mysoginy, no matter what!