So, when we moved from NJ to IL, one of the things that overwhelmed us was that the majority of people we met were Christian.  For a long time, our family identified as Christians and as a result, we felt weird but in kind of a good way: we were no longer the minority.  There were TWO Christian radio stations here and I quickly programmed them into the radio.  They were usually on in the car.  I didn’t have to worry about songs with themes of hooking up, getting drunk or dollah dollah billz, yo.  To be fair, even my beloved ’70s songs often left us in a pickle.  I have a really hard time with my fiery Latina’s favorite song being “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones.  Ugh…

When we got here, BigGuy was 6-1/2 and Girly was 18mo old.

Our time and experiences here have forced us to better define our beliefs and we realized, we really WEREN’T Christians.  We are Bible-based people that use Jesus as the role model for sure.  We believe that the crucifixion and resurrection took place, but after all of that–we differ from Christians.  The major line in the sand making us non-Chrisitians is that we do not tie our salvation to Jesus.  There are other places we differ.  We don’t see God as a human image.  We don’t dwell on heaven and hell.  We believe that all people are inherently good.  We’re not really big on holidays because every day is a gift.  There are some other differences, but those are the big ones.  That makes us (for all intents and purposes) Quakers.  Our labeling has changed to better reflect the beliefs we have always had.

But at some point, BigGuy started realizing that much of what we heard on K-Love was not aligned to our belief set.  *sigh*  Maturity.

I’m not sure how it happened, but BigGuy took to seeking alternate radio selections unbeknownst to me.  The radio was often on in the basement while they played.  I simply had no clue that the station had changed somewhere along the lines.  Until we were out somewhere and my kids were happily singing along to some mainstream pop song–much to my surprise.  Suddenly, BigGuy was asking for a specific station in the car… and I was thrown into the world of music-with-horrible-values.  Not ALL of it, but a LOT of it.

A few days ago, while in Minnesota, our dear friend was lamenting about the music her kids heard on the bus and my husband chimed right in (he apparently hears more of this with the kids than I do… no clue how or why).  He saw her “I’m so fancy” and raised it an “I’m all about the bass, ’bout the bass”.

I don’t homeschool my kids to shelter them.  Seriously–I don’t.  But I do think there’s a maturity level needed to understand some of the concepts sung about in ALL songs.  Some just create a subconscious comfort level with concepts I’m not going to be happy about.  This goes both for Christian music and secular music.

Needless to say, I’m now creating a playlist of songs that I think are okay for where my kids current maturity level is at.  That’s not necessarily “clean” music.  It is music that might include some questionable stuff, but stuff I feel like we can have meaningful conversation about.  At minimum, understanding-of-the-concepts conversation.  And after seeing this video today of Meghan Trainor with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots doing “All About the Bass” with classroom instruments–I sought out the lyrics.  Outside of men needing more booty to cling to at night (a concept I feel I can explain to both kids), I was really loving this song’s sentiment that women can have curves and not be “fat”.  Plus, I always love a white girl that can carry a song with some soul and rhythm.

So here ya go… enjoy: