Kids music

[Kodos]

Our son Noah is all about Ralph's World (Ralph Covert I think is his real name). The songs are fun and actually bearable for adults. What do your kids like to listen to?

[rkmsuf]

Luther Campbell

[JonInMiddleGA]

Iron Maiden, Metallica, Dio, AC/DC, and Pantera are probably his favorites among the classics. For the newer stuff, he leans more toward what would be called Active Rock than today's Metal (says there's too much growling & not enough singing now, although he does like Dragonforce in small doses), so over the past couple of years he's been into stuff like Trapt, Nickelback, Staind, Saliva, and Stone Sour. He's kind of going through a stage right now where he's more into singles/individual tracks than specific groups or full projects.

[Warhammer]

Laurie Berkner
The Backyardigans CD

My 5 year old really enjoys Queen. Last night, we're watching Dancing With the Stars, and they had a dance number which featured "Don't Stop Me Now." He started dancing around singing it at the top of his lungs. I was impressed.

From here, I guess I can introduce him to U2, The Pretenders, or possibly Clapton.

[kurtism]

They Might Be Giants have a kid's CD entitled "No!" - great stuff, and my now almost-4-year-old daughter has loved it for two years. I'll second Laurie Berkner as well.

From the "who'da thunk it file," Caitlin has recently grown attached to the song "Lollipop" off of MIKA's new cd.

[st.cronin]

I bought one of my nephews a regular They Might Be Giants cd (forget which one), and I'm told he loves it.

[CamEdwards]

Andrew (age 6) never really liked kids music, other than the aforementioned They Might Be Giants cd. He was more into No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Ok Go. Now that he's six, he doesn't really listen to music other than that on Guitar Hero. As a result of his constant exposure to that game, he now likes Queen quite a bit.

The twins, on the other hand, haven't yet demonstrated any particular passion for a band, although they do like things with heavy bass. And James loves guitar rock, while Catherine's more into the hip/hop electronic stuff.

As far as kids music goes, they like Ralph's World and the Backyardigans songs the best.

[Ksyrup]

My 5 year old really enjoys Queen. Last night, we're watching Dancing With the Stars, and they had a dance number which featured "Don't Stop Me Now." He started dancing around singing it at the top of his lungs. I was impressed.

I threw up in my mouth when I heard that song. What a cheesy bastardization that was.

BTW, this brings up a completely tangential point that maybe would be better discussed in the parenting thread, but my wife and I get the feeling that we're different from most parents in the bed times we set for our kids. Our oldest will be 8 in August, and we'd never let her stay up long enough to watch DWtS. Not to say there's anything wrong with letting your 5 year old stay up that late - in fact, we're finding that we are the oddballs, which is why I'm bringing this up. She goes to bed at 7:45 on school nights, 8 on weekends. Maybe 8:30 on a rare occasion. Our 2 year old goes to sleep around 7:30 at the latest. But I've seen kids still out playing when we're marching the kids upstairs, which makes it difficult to explain why they have to go to bed.

Do most of you let your kids stay up beyond 8pm?

Oh, and on the subject, our 8 year old is majorly into the Disney stuff - Corbin Bleu, High School Musical, Cheetah Girls, Hannah Montana, etc. I just bought her the Jonas Brothers CD because at least they are rock-based and play their own instruments. But of my stuff, she loves Tally Hall and even likes some King's X, which thrills me. But the funny thing about our family - and it'll be interesting to see if/when this changes - is that I'm the one trotting out (sarcastically, of course) the "if it's too loud you're too old" line. The kids are constantly telling me to turn down my music in the car. Quite a departure from when I was growing up. But I guess listening to Metallica and Slayer as a teen kinda changes the perspective on these things from generation to generation.

[Castlerock]

BTW, this brings up a completely tangential point that maybe would be better discussed in the parenting thread, but my wife and I get the feeling that we're different from most parents in the bed times we set for our kids. Our oldest will be 8 in August, and we'd never let her stay up long enough to watch DWtS. Not to say there's anything wrong with letting your 5 year old stay up that late - in fact, we're finding that we are the oddballs, which is why I'm bringing this up. She goes to bed at 7:45 on school nights, 8 on weekends. Maybe 8:30 on a rare occasion. Our 2 year old goes to sleep around 7:30 at the latest. But I've seen kids still out playing when we're marching the kids upstairs, which makes it difficult to explain why they have to go to bed.

Do most of you let your kids stay up beyond 8pm?


I have a 2-year-old and we start getting ready for bed around 7:30. In bed by 8:00.

For music - Laurie Berkner.
TV is Teletubbies and the Wiggles. God, I hate the Teletubbies.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ksyrup - as far as I can tell, bedtimes (the way I, and apparently you, think of them) are increasingly a thing of the past.

For Will, his earliest school night bedtime (during pre-K & Kindergarten) was 9p. Now, in 3rd grade, it's become 945p with frequent lapses until 10p. But it seems to be working about right since he gets up (around 7a) easier than we do. It's rare that he even has to be called down to breakfast twice & we only hear "just five more minutes" less than a half dozen times a year.

As for the weekends, it's largely anything goes. I'd guesstimate he usually crashes & burns between 1a-2a on Saturday nights, a little earlier on Fridays (since he's been up since 7a). He has always been more of a night person than a morning person, which we discovered pretty quickly when we started going to WDW. He was the 3 y/o still wide awake & engaged at the 1am parade, while 95% of pre-teens were out cold. Again though, by way of explanation, he does a good job of knowing when to give it up, and there are weekend nights where he'll be asleep by 11p. Basically, if he's zonked, he's pretty good about letting us know he's ready to hit the rack.

Thing is, his routine seems to be earlier than a lot of the norms we've picked up on from his classmates. At least 1 out of 5 really don't seem to have "bedtimes" even on school nights. That's not just anecdotal from the kids either, that's stuff we've confirmed/learned from talking to various parents (usually as they complain that "he/she just won't go to bed before midnight").
My sister is one of those, with my nephew who is nearly two years younger than Will, pretty much never seeing bed before midnight.

Where I personally draw the line on being critical of bedtimes is probably somewhere around whether there's obvious problems. One of those classmates I mentioned with the non-existent/just-whenever bedtimes was perpetually falling asleep in class. My nephew has had the same problem. That seems like a pretty good sign that there's need for some change in their routine. But as long as you're getting good results, I'm probably not going to bat an eye on what somebody does about bedtimes. If it ain't broke, etc, etc.

[Ksyrup]

Wow. I guess it has a lot to do with the kid's ability to stay up, but frankly, even if one of our kids was a night owl, I'm not sure we'd let them stay up past 8, at least on a week night. The few times we've let our 7 year old stay up (like during December to watch Christmas shows during primetime), she could barely make it to 9pm. But we didn't base her bedtime on observing her, we've set it where it is because of school and, I guess, how we were brought up. She's up by 6am every morning for school, so that gives her about 10 hours of sleep, which is what I think she needs.

Interesting.

[JonInMiddleGA]

She's up by 6am every morning for school

See, there's a big difference.

We've never had to get him up for school any earlier than about 645a, and that was only until we got our routine down cold, which lets us move it back to around 7. Unlike me at that age (or now) he's pretty efficient in the morning, and everything from breakfast to out the door takes no more than 35-40 tops, and is sometimes done in less than 30. Until we moved, his trip to school was about 8 minutes on the worst days, now it's about 15.

edit to add: There's also a lot of advantage, IMO, to the fact that we work from home 99% of the time. We don't have to worry much about getting the adults ready in the morning beyond being dressed enough to drive to school & back. Trust me, I was not "client-ready" when I walked out of here at 740 this morning.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, she's got to be ready for the bus, which comes about 7-7:10 every morning. Still, on the weekends, I don't think she could make it to 9 even if we told her to stay up as long as she wanted. Occasionally, like when we visit with family, they'll both stay up, sometimes past 10, but on a regular basis, there's no way. Which is just as well, because I have no clue when the wife and I would have time to ourselves if the kids were able to stay up until 10 every night.

So part of this is practical, part for our sanity, and part to make our marriage last. :)

[Warhammer]

I threw up in my mouth when I heard that song. What a cheesy bastardization that was.

BTW, this brings up a completely tangential point that maybe would be better discussed in the parenting thread, but my wife and I get the feeling that we're different from most parents in the bed times we set for our kids. Our oldest will be 8 in August, and we'd never let her stay up long enough to watch DWtS. Not to say there's anything wrong with letting your 5 year old stay up that late - in fact, we're finding that we are the oddballs, which is why I'm bringing this up. She goes to bed at 7:45 on school nights, 8 on weekends. Maybe 8:30 on a rare occasion. Our 2 year old goes to sleep around 7:30 at the latest. But I've seen kids still out playing when we're marching the kids upstairs, which makes it difficult to explain why they have to go to bed.

Do most of you let your kids stay up beyond 8pm?

We set 8pm as the time by which we shoot to have the kids in bed. Depending upon what the kids were doing prior to bed, they either go straight to bed, or get a story. Also, we're on central time which is why they were able to see DWtS.

That said, my two kids share a room. I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. They will stay up and play quietly until after my wife and I go to sleep! I have tried every thing, not allowing toys to bed, only allowing books, etc., etc. The only thing that has worked, is telling my boys that if I hear so much as a sound, the 5 year old gets spanked. The reason why this works is it appears the 5 year old is the one to get most of the frolicking started. That allows both kids to get to sleep relatively early, 8:30 for the 2 year old, and 8:45-9:30 depending on the night for the 5 year old.

Yes, the version of the song was cheesy, but its better than some Mariah Carey or Celine Dion song that they could have played.

[Ksyrup]

Ah yes, the joys of living in the Central Time Zone. If I could choose to import a time zone to live in, that's the one I would choose.

[Kodos]

We put our 2 year old son to bed at 8:30 most nights. But then we don't get up until around 7:30.

[DanGarion]

Pussycat Dolls, she just loves them...

(oh wait I don't have a kid, I'm just stating what other parents let their children listen to and then wonder why they grow up to be little sluts...)

[CamEdwards]

Our 16-year old has a weeknight bedtime of 11:00 p.m. (he has to be up at 5:45 a.m. to get ready for school). Weekends he gets to stay up until 12:30.

Our 6-year old has an 8:30 p.m. bedtime, with the exception of getting to stay up until 9 p.m. on Saturday nights.

The twins (who turn two today... Happy Birthday!) go to bed at 7 p.m. every night, and will usually sleep til 6:30-7 a.m.

We're big believers in bedtime. Always have, always will be.