Child of the devil, mama, you don't have to cry, lalalalala… at my funeral… that's how it started a few months ago here in the house. Of course I had already heard the song and it has an insanely catchy tune I think. Yet around me I also hear a lot of noises from mothers who don't like it at all when their child sings along with this kind of top 40 songs. Child of the devil of Jebroer is therefore a frequently mentioned example. Just like drink and drugs used to be by the way.
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Sometimes I wonder if we're too flexible about these kinds of things. Although with children of almost 8 and 12 you don't really have anything to say about this anymore, because they do come into contact with it at school. But personally I don't see much harm in it either. Radio538 is always on in our house, so this kind of music comes along regularly.
Of course I understand that strict believers have more trouble with this. Yet I don't feel that way myself, while I am also a believer. I just don't believe in the devil, so well… a child of the devil is completely far-fetched. That is also what I teach my children when we hear this song or similar songs. That I think they mean something different than they actually sing. I don't really know what they mean by the text, but by banning it I think you put so much emphasis on it. Kind of like banning your kids from smoking, which I recently wrote about as well. Prohibition makes attractive. I would rather take the opportunity to start a conversation about it myself. The same goes for songs like this.
Such a conversation with us then goes as follows. I ask my kids if they know what the singer means by saying. Often they don't know that, of course, but they care about the sing-along thump that is so delicious. However, in this case my daughter yells 'Mom, but the devil doesn't exist at all'. And so we come home to a conversation about faith. About God and about the devil. And about the monkeys, of course. Because I myself may believe that there is a God, Frank is absolutely certain that we are descended from the apes 😉 . So our kids always get to hear both versions. They can choose what they feel most comfortable with.
This kind of music sometimes leads to very nice conversations and I'm very happy about that, because I think you achieve more with it. I don't really like the clip of this song (just watched it for the first time)…
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