‘My son sings this song because he knows that his friends will laugh’
Of course, a lot has been said and written in the entire #MeToo discussion that I don’t have to go into everything here. What I particularly remember is this: we must not protect our daughters, we must raise our sons. Now I’m of the opinion that both can’t hurt, so I try to make Nora sensible yet resilient and I try to explain to Casper that respect is the basis of how you treat someone in general and girls in particular.
Vocabulary
Broadly speaking, he certainly agrees with me, but we differ on the details. The vocabulary, for example. That he recently accidentally dialed the number Beer and tits (at least, the first part of it, until I reached the sound system with a sprint, but unfortunately I was too late and the chorus was already blaring), doesn’t help at the moment. I think tits is a stupid word that I never use, he likes to sing along – especially to music.
“I sprinted to the sound system, but unfortunately too late.”
“Why don’t you just leave him”, said an acquaintance recently, when I got angry because Casper was the clown and sang the song again, because he knows that his friends will laugh. “He’s really going to understand that you shouldn’t say that and now you’re just making it interesting.” But I don’t think so, I really think it’s my job as a mother to be on top of this.
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Correction
Yesterday a friend came to play. I was standing in the kitchen and heard them chatting together. “When I grow up, I’ll get tits,” said the girl, apparently also a fan of this word. I was already ready to intervene, because I thought: now Casper is going wild. But no. He looked at her and said, “That’s not how you say it.” I already felt enormously proud of my own upbringing and in my mind praised myself as a responsible mother. Until he decisively explained his improvement: “It’s beer and tits.”
In short, there is still some work to be done. But before he goes to the pub later, he succeeds.
This column is in Kek Mama 12-2021.
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