Good Clean Family Fun with Kid Rock… Wait, What?!

Regardless of varying musical genre preferences, we Michiganders love our Kid Rock.  We are proud of our Eminem too but we don’t need a parental advisory label to tell us that once you have kids in the house your days of listening to the Marshall Mathers Show are over.  Kid too has a wild side, for sure.  But these days his music and good old boy demeanor conjure up good times and happy feelings of remember when.  It was watching one of his videos though, that I had another one of those, “oh my gosh I’m a parent now!” moments, and went from nostalgic to “square” in the matter of a second.

Have you heard Kid’s “All Summer Long”?  I drift off into happy land whenever I hear it.  I was proud of my 12 year old who recognized and pointed out the “Sweet Home Alabama” sampling.  (My kids are familiar with that song because Reese Witherspoon’s movie of the same name is one of our favorite chick flicks.)  Add to everything else the mention of “Northern Michigan” in the song and it becomes a family classic.  (My kids are up north at the lake with Grandma and Grandpa right now, in fact!)

So you get it, right?  The song talks to us.  We sing it together, we bond as a family.  The one bit of discomfort is the line about “smoking” funny things.  But my daughter immediately changed it to “singing” funny things before I had to decide how to censor.  Problem solved. 

Singing, dancing, bonding, good family times.

One day last week we caught the video.  You know how hard it is to actually see a video on the MTV right?  But I think we caught a countdown show or something.  Anyway, everyone flocked to the tv to see it.  Seriously we are all singing and got a little bounce going because this song has created this moment of joy that surrounds it every time we hear it.   We can really relate to Kid driving the boat on the lake in Michigan, wind whipping through his hair, happy, and singing.

I see Hubby, he’s smiling.  Gone from his mind for three minutes are the worries of bills and his job security in the auto industry.  What a great video.

I am always talking about enjoying the tiny moments… here are a few of my favorite lyrics.

• 1989 in Northern Michigan.  Me and Hubby were fresh into our 20s hanging out at the cabin every weekend.
• no internet.  You forget there was a time we didn’t have it!
• “whiskey out the bottle“ Don’t tell my Dad.
• catching walleye off the dock… omg you have to be from Michigan to get that, right?
• when the leaves begin to change… another instance of Michigan beauty.  They actually have “color tours” it is such an amazing sight.

I actually feel like a teenager seeing the young couple boating and playing and smooching it up at the lake, surrounded by all their friends. We actually commented about what good clean fun it was.   Drinking beer.  Dancing on the stripper pole.  We’re all humming and smiling.

It wasn’t immediate is the funny thing, my realization that this song and video were INAPPROPIATE! (not a typo, there.  That’s how my daughter says it)  I remember looking at the song title that they display at the end of the video and the whole video suddenly rewound in my head!   I looked at Hubby whose contorted face told me he was having the same realization.  The kids were still smiling and singing. 

I scooted the kids away and told hubby, “good clean fun my ass!  I will lock my daughter in a tower if I see her dancing in a bikini with her friends around the campfire at night with a “red plastic cup” in her hand!”  In one instant the images went from “good clean fun” to “unacceptable behavior”.  Isn’t that funny how our attitudes change?

In all other areas besides entertainment my parental censors come on beforehand.  But I guess because I am so open minded when it comes to arts and entertainment that my parental advisory is a little delayed. 

Check out the video below and get lost in the good vibe, then remind yourself that your kids are soon going to be teenagers.  It’s brutal!  Tell me what you think.