– A Confession.

I never thought I would do this, let alone admit it.

But here it goes.

I bought a Kidz Bop album.

I know what you’re thinking, but please just let me explain myself.

I love music, can’t live without it. I hate nothing more than a silent car ride. And Ivy seems to be taking after me. Since she started school two weeks ago, she’s in the car with me at least twelve times a week, and always wants to listen to the radio.

While we drive, we rotate between about four radio stations, three of which are pop/Top 40. I love pop…Britney Spears has been one of my guilty pleasures for many years (another thing I never thought I’d admit). And pop is so catchy, all the kids love it. Especially Ivy.

Well, then I read this post by the Bearded Iris. And I became aware of what, exactly, we were listening to when we heard one of the most popular songs of the year.

And guess what one of Ivy’s new favorite songs is? Yeah. This Friday Night by Katy Perry. Or, as she likes to call it, “the Friday song”.

You know, the one that starts with this line: “there’s a stranger in my bed”.

Then there’s this line: “and we took too many shots”. And in case I thought that Ivy wasn’t really listening to the words, she’d say, “did she just say ‘shots’? I don’t want to get shots. Does Ervin have to gets shots at the doctor?”

I’m not delusional enough to think that Katy Perry is a good role model, or that her songs are appropriate for kids. But Ivy likes the song. Scratch that. LOVES the song. And Ivy can recognize the song as fast as I can (in approximately three notes).

It got to the point where my blood pressure was rising and the hair on the back of my neck were standing up every time I changed the station, in fear that that song would be playing and we’d have to listen to it.

I know. I’m getting old. I’m a mom. I pray for the day when they stop playing that song on every radio station every 10 minutes.

In the meantime, I bought Kidz Bop 20. No, it doesn’t have Katy’s song on it. But if someone could rewrite that song to be kid-appropriate, they’d deserve a Nobel Prize or something. Because there is not a LINE IN THE SONG that’s kid-appropriate.

It does, however, have Ivy’s other favorite song, Tonight, Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae. Which I’m fine with. It’s fun, it’s catchy, and it doesn’t talk about streaking, skinny dipping or maxing out credit cards. The producers did change “woke up with a new tattoo” to “woke up with a new hairdo”…I’m not sure how a hairdo can look like Zach Galifianakis, but whatever.