Head bangin' and other parental duties

Our household has never been one filled with the sounds of Raffi, Barney is verboten and in fact Shawn Joaquin recognized and could name Jack Johnson's and Merle Haggard's voices before he ever knew who Elmo or Diego were. At the age of one he most enjoyed spastically dancing and drumming to the Kings of Leon's Holy Roller Novocaine. But through the years, a bit of children's music has crept into the house, sneaking in on manufactured Disney feet as birds come down and tie ribbons in homogenous singing princesses' hair. So it was with great delight that I turned on Shawn Joaquin’s radio to hear Bell Bottom Blues and hear Shawn Joaquin shout "KEEP THAT ON! I LIKE THAT! THAT'S THE BOOOOOONE!"

"The Bone" is 107.7 THE BONE, a local radio station that prides itself on playing pure rock with none of that crappy pop or pretenders-to-the-rock-throne mixed in. Madelena, who usually listens to folkie music and reggae, was instantly intrigued. The next song to blast forth from the bright blue radio was Van Halen's Panama. Within seconds, Madelena was on the bed and jumping up and down on her knees, fists in the air and chin tucked down, hair in her face and her eyes closed...the very epitome of a rocker chick at a concert, head bangin' and feeeeelin' it. And in that moment I felt an icy fear grip my heart. I had already announced to Gregg months before that Madelena will be the child that breaks my heart; the very independence and force of will that I so admire now will be the thing that will drive her to the East Coast or Eastern Europe at the age of 18, with no care by her for her aging mother. But in that head banging moment I saw her at least two years before her abandonment, sneaking out to a concert with kohl-ringed eyes and a joint in the pocket of her too tight jeans.

So I had to weigh the options before me: switch off Panama and turn on Ariel singing for the prince for whom she so willingly tossed aside her entire family, or risk turning my child into a rocker that will break my heart just as surely as Ariel broke her father's. I chose the lesser of the two evils, and Shawn Joaquin, Madelena and I all enjoyed some Teen Spirit, complete with air guitar, continued head banging and a finale that included collapsing to the floor at the end while shouting "THANK you! Thank you very much, Oaklaaaaand!"

Rock on.