They Need Us To Be Their Parents, Not Their Friends!

Cardi B makes music for people who buy new sneakers when their rent is past due. She makes music for people who say “they is”, not because they’ve been enlightened by woke vernacular but because they don’t know or care which pronoun actually belongs with “is”.

Here’s the thing, she also makes music for soccer moms who like to get a little gangster in their minivans after school drop-off.

There’s a clip floating around social media of Cardi B singing along with one of her own songs, but cutting it off quickly when her child comes in the room.

I hate to do it, but I have to give praise where praise is due. She may speak like she’s mixing 16 languages at once (and all by accident instead of by wealth of knowledge) but there is at least a smidgen of common sense in her head when it comes to parenting.

If you’re out here making WAP videos and tiktoks with your kids, humping the floor because you think it’s funny, Cardi B may be a better parent than you are. If you’re marching through the streets with your toddler chanting “F*** Trump” (or even Biden), Cardi B may be a better parent than you. And she sings about the inner workings of her hooha for a living.

Most of our kids will eventually listen to crappy music, you’d have to live in the woods with no electricity to avoid it. That doesn’t mean we have to be the ones to introduce it to them.

My 12 year old daughter doesn’t have tiktok or Snapchat, but it only takes one sleepover for her to come home knowing one of those weird, clapping, snapping, and swinging dances. AND the lyrics to the song.

I sound like I’m old. I’m not THAT old, I just REALLY dislike those dances.

My son, at 19, is not allowed to play his terrible music when he has his younger sister in the car. My bestie, a tiny little Korean woman, probably has more extreme ghetto, hood-rat music tastes than anyone I know, but she’s not bumping Three 6 Mafia when we take the kids to the trampoline park.

I am not a perfect parent. My kids some times “clean” their rooms by tossing things in their closets. My son spent months of his junior year without a door on his room because he kept thinking he could act up with dad deployed. I caught my daughter rolling her eyes at me in the mirror today when I told her to change her clothes.

I would LOVE to take the easy route and be their friends first, but I can only imagine what kind of brats I’d be raising if I didn’t make a constant effort to be a parent first and think about the adults we want them to develop into.

This is your reminder that it’s okay if your kids think you’re not cool. Or if they’re embarrassed to be the only ones without the latest form of social media. See this article about raising conservative children. I wouldn’t go so far as to call her mother of the year, but if Carbi B can make an effort to shield her child from inappropriate things, then the rest of us can certainly do the same!