Some Adults Don't Have A Clue When It Comes To Playing Music @ Children's Parties

We only get one chance at childhood. That is a time when children's imagination can blossom and they can grow to become adults with vision. Their unencumbered minds could hold the secret to cures for anything if we as adults allow them a childhood and the creativity to be a kid.

When an adult steals a childhood, it messes up some people for life-the most famous example being Michael Jackson. I thought of him the other day when I had the misfortune to be at a children's birthday party. I wasn't a guest, but a worker. And the party was for three children ages 6, 7, and 8.

When I first arrived, the Toy Story jumping jack was in the middle of the room. There was a clown painting the children's faces; making hats and animals out of those long slinky balloons; and entertaining the children. The kids-ranging from around 5 to 10 years old-were screaming, running and having a good time. But what caught my attention was the music. The deejay appeared to be barely 18 years olds. But the music coming out of his speakers would make someone 80 years old blush.

One of the first songs had lyrics that talked about "Sex in the morning." At first I didn't think I heard what I heard. I have become so accustomed to hearing that song at night that I never paid much attention to the lyrics. But at a children's party with less noise, the lyrics were clear and disturbing to say the least.

I asked one of the men who was throwing the party about the music lineup. I asked did he approve of the lyrics to the songs that were being played. With a straight face the man told me "his kids knew better than to say those words." Yeah, right.

I then went and asked the deejay why he was playing so much filth. "The mom requested it," he told me. Even more amazing: she specifically asked for a song by Wacka Flocka called "No Hands." Now, I've heard, but not paid attention to, that song for weeks. It has always been a part of adult parties and I must admit that I can't understand many rap song's lyrics because they all sound the same to me. But every now and then I can pick up a chorus, and Flocka's song was one of them.

I had three adults-one man and two women-come and ask me to exchange large bills for singles. I didn't have a lot of money in the cash register, so I couldn't give up all my ones. Later, I learned why they wanted the change. The adults gathered in a circle while the young girls did "booty pop" dances. Each little girl danced with her legs gapped wide open and imitated what a lot of adults and strippers do.

They shook their behinds to the beat with one young girl holding her shirt in her mouth as she gyrated. Then the man threw dollars at the little girls to the Wacka Flocka song. I don't know where the fine line exists for kiddie porn, but a sexually-suggestive dance by young children is sick. We already have men over the age of 21 who father children by girls barely into their teens. So how easy is it for those types of predators to move to younger children when the parents are the ones encouraging that type of dancing?


Here are a few lyrics to "No Hands":

Girl the way you're movin'
Got me in a trance
DJ turn me up
Ladies dis yo jam
I'ma sip Moscato
And you 'gon lose dem pants
Then I'ma throw this money
While you do it with no hands
Girl drop it to the flo'
I love the way your booty go


And folks, that is the cleaner part of that song. Many of the records that were played talked about "pussy," "dick" and lots of "oral sex." When I mentioned the content to the grandmother, she said that wasn't supposed to be played. But it was; and it went on for more than four hours. When we asked the deejay if he had Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair"-a more appropriate record for children-the response was, "no." Heck the deejay didn't even play a Michael Jackson song.

I watched while one young boy looked confused by it all. He was at a party for his age group and yet the adults were the majority on the dance floor. There is something extremely sick when adults don't have core values-or a clue! If a teacher had played that song at school, the parents would be irate. But I guess because they gave the party, everything was OK. It's not.

There is no joy is seeing young girls behave like bar room strippers. It is not cute to throw money at children while they gyrate to that kind of music.

If parents can't grow up and recognize that there is a bold line between music for children and music for adults-they shouldn't be parents.