Indoctrination

Any parents are going to want to mold their children. They’ll want to pass on their values, history, priorities and cultural touchstones. We’re coming in sort of in the middle of the movie with our son, as some of his tastes have already been set. We’re honoring all that stuff, but it’s just natural that we’re trying to pass down some of the cultural stuff we care about, so he’s well rounded and what not.

There’s just so much culture we’ve already experienced, and I can’t wait to share it with him. Some of it is a little Rated R but we figured, why not find something good for his age range and start watching The Simpsons with him?  

We skipped the early few seasons (the characters were too unformed and the tone uneven for me) and started with season 4, the beginning of the golden years. We’re well into season 5 now and he’s been enjoying it. It’s so much fun to revisit classics with someone who’s never seen them, episodes like “Rosebud” (“Have the Rolling Stones killed!”), “Marge vs. the Monorail” (“Sorry, Marge, the mob has spoken!”), “Deep Space Homer” (“In Rod We Trust”), “Marge Gets a Job” (“It’s the Curies! We must flee!”) and “Bart Gets an Elephant” (“D’oh! A deer! A female deer!”). He’s been into The Simpsons and asks us if we can watch it, so I guess that’s a winner.

As for music, I’ve been emphasizing some of the stuff I like to listen to. It’s not like I have any idea of what 10-year-olds like to listen to so this has mostly been what now passes for oldies. I’ve been playing a lot of Madonna, Prince, etc. He says he likes what he hears but he doesn’t know any of it and hasn’t heard of these artists, which kills me. We’re also trying to keep him in touch with his African-American culture (which we believe is our obligation) so one easy way to do that is to push the music.

Of course, I realize it’s a fool’s errand to push your music on their kids because ultimately, they’ll roll their eyes at your tastes and rebel. But I’m hoping something seeps through subliminally.

I’m also trying to get him rooting for our sports teams, but that’s been a challenge. He is not an Eagles fan (which made for a roller coaster Sunday when they collapsed and the Panthers won, leading to a lot of “In your face!” in our house). He is a Steelers fan. It’s not like he’s a Patriots fan or something (he hates them), and I’m not opposed to the Steelers or anything. But when he told Steve he likes the Penguins—them’s fighting words (although I think he was trolling). Our son has no interest in baseball and doesn’t like the Sixers. But if he wants Steelers swag, we can get him some.

I have no idea why he’s a Steelers fan, by the way. He’s lived his whole life in the Wilmington area. There seem to be a lot of people who are sports fans of teams that have no relation to their geographic areas or family traditions. How does that happen, anyway? If you live somewhere with no local teams, I can see latching on to whatever team strikes your fancy, but we have four teams that have been around forever. I guess I’m too much of a partisan Philadelphia sports fan to understand. My local teams are my local teams.

Anyway, I know parents can’t indoctrinate their kids too much into their tastes since it will backfire. But it’s fun to expose kids to things you enjoy and hope they rub off.