#ParentingTips: Why Do Children Have to Listen to “Children” Songs?
As parents, we’ve all been there – listening to those catchy children’s songs on repeat until we start dreaming about Baby Shark in our sleep. But have you ever stopped and wondered why children have to listen to songs specifically designed for them? 🤔
### The Importance of Children’s Songs
Children’s songs serve a vital role in early childhood development. 🎵 They help children learn language skills, develop cognitive abilities, and improve their memory. These songs are specifically created with simple lyrics and melodies that cater to young and developing minds. By listening to children’s songs, kids are actively engaging in a fun and educational activity that supports their overall growth.
### The Impact of Adult Songs on Children
While listening to adult songs may seem harmless, it can actually have unintended consequences on young children. Adult songs often contain complex lyrics, mature themes, and strong language that may not be suitable for little ears. Exposing children to music with inappropriate content can have a negative impact on their emotional and psychological development.
### Finding a Balance
It’s essential for parents to find a balance between children’s songs and adult music. While it’s okay to introduce your child to your favorite tunes, it’s important to be mindful of the content and age-appropriateness. One great way to incorporate a mix of music is by creating playlists that include a variety of songs suitable for both adults and children. This way, you can enjoy your favorite music together while also providing your child with songs that cater to their developmental needs.
### Conclusion
So, next time you find yourself singing along to “Baby Shark” for the millionth time, remember that children’s songs play a crucial role in your child’s development. By embracing the world of children’s music, you are setting the stage for a lifetime of love and appreciation for all genres of music. 🎶 Embrace the jingles, the catchy melodies, and the silly lyrics – you might just find yourself enjoying them as much as your little one!
Have fun exploring new children’s songs with your child and watch them grow and thrive with the power of music!
Because children’s songs are (supposed to be) educational. Just like children’s television and books.
My daughter listens to whatever I do. She loves all kinds of electronic music and rock n roll.
But part of the appeal with “kids” music is simplicity. Their little developing minds are just starting to recognize patterns. So when they’re able to learn a simple melody and anticipate it they get satisfaction. It’s the same reason they like to watch the same show over and over. Their mind is amused when it knows something is coming. It feels neat to sort of know the future.
A lot of the lyrics are very simple and sometimes fun “we are the dinosaurs, marching marching” for instance. Wheels on the bus. Etc.
But kids can and do appreciate other music as well. My daughter’s current favorite song is Noisestorm – Crab Rave. But it’s probably because of the little crabs in the music video.
Because children like children stuff. They like bright colors and small animals. They’re children they like calm happy melodies. Children songs are only annoying to us because WE don’t like them.
Kids songs tend to be simpler for them to learn. They are often humorous and fun. I sometimes still get kiddie song ear worms and belt them out.
It’s not that you “can’t”. You can play kids whatever you want. But if you put on kids music, they’ll naturally gravitate towards it. I personally sing sea shanties while I work, and my kids have no interest at all in singing about the wind in the sails, or looking forward to coming home, or the salt on their brow. But I sing it, and very occasionally they’ll sing along. It just doesn’t resonate with them at all. It strikes no emotional chord with their lived experiences, interests, etc.
But I put on some Parry Gripp? They’ll sing “Neon Pegasus” all day.
Bob Marley is probably good for that. There’s also a lot of educational stuff for kids that’s actually good but they plop them in front of the CorpTube algo. 🤢
Children don’t have to listen to children’s songs, but as a young child I know I much rather preferred Rolly Polly Fish Heads to wanky Pink Floyd, and I had constant exposure to ***all*** kinds of ‘adult’ music. The same thing applies to watching Saturday morning cartoons as opposed to some 2 hour drama that I’m sure won all kinds of awards. Simple, colorful and catchy is what connects more with a child’s young growing brain.
Children’s media is designed to be easy to digest and be catchy so it doesn’t have to be replaced often and so the children become obsessed and pressure their parents to consume related merchandise
I suppose children’s music is meant to be easy to follow and understand. No figurative language or hidden meanings.
Lighter melody that can improve the mood. Lyrics are familiar words they learned at school as well.
Because children generally prefer children’s songs given that they have content that THEY can relate to and enjoy easily. Also, clear and simple sounds and lyrics at the beginning are extremely important for language, pattern, and memory practice and learning. The songs also generally come with lessons and social situations that demonstrate good manners, proper social etiquette, healthy habits, validation, and fundamentals learning such as numbers, colors, and shapes. Time and time again, it’s been proven that songs make the learning process more enjoyable, as well as easier for both children and adults, thus making learning more enjoyable and able to be engrained more easily for developing brains with very short attention spans. Also, children are very impressionable, and limiting their exposure to some extent to harmfully unrealistic or glorified situations and relationships portrayed in mainstream music can help protect their brains from damaging messages while they’re too young to understand the nuance.
TDLR: nothing bad will happen if they listen to ‘regular’ music (unless it’s got consistently harmful or bad messaging that can warp their minds). Children’s songs are simply very beneficial to their cognitive, social, and emotional development, and an easy way to instill creativity and learning skills early on.
I think death metal is the perfect choice for my kids.
It’s loud and aggressive, which they love
You can’t understand the lyrics so they don’t pick up any bad words
My daughter listens to death metal (lots of different kinds but mostly metalcore and stuff like that) with me and asks to listen to it so she can rock out.
She listens to some silly songs every now and then too, of course… Like some Kitty Kitty Meow Meow song, but I don’t think it was made to be a kids song per se but rather an internet meme song. Lol. But its definitely got the kid song vibes so who knows? I mean I have a playlist on my Spotify for songs for my kids. They’re mostly meme music as we all play Minecraft and Fortnite together, haha. There’s also some good pop punk on there as both kids got into that since I listen to it so much. Also some EDM as my son loves a lot of EDM. When my kids were little they both listened to kids music from time to time but when we’re in the car I rarely turn on “Wheels On the Bus” or whatever stuff like that.
Edit to Add: I do try to keep the cursing to a minimum with my kids. They both know that cursing is not cool for them to do and really isn’t cool for anyone to do. So if they hear something then I tell them to just ignore it. My daughter will say “oooooo bad wooorrddd!” But my son doesn’t care. He’s close to being a teenager though. But I’m also not going to listen to Get Low by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz either.
When I was a kid, we sang about plagues. bridges crashing, and babies falling from trees.
I mean when I was around 5 my favorite album was Pink Floyd’s The Wall, closely followed by Alice Cooper’s Welcome to my Nightmare and Rush’s Moving Pictures.
Children songs aim to teach children basic things like colors or numbers and what not. Which child would listen to some old man whining about his father dying 80 years ago?
Some things have concepts they can learn too, like colors, shapes, animals, or instructions that can encourage activity. Kids can and definitely do enjoy regular music but sometimes they need to learn wheels go round and wipers go swish.
Music is still storytelling
I could read a Dr Seuss or I could read them Farenheit 451 – I’m still telling them a story either way, but they’ll be able to comprehend one better than the other. They could certainly understand words and parts within it – but their overall comprehension of what’s going on would be extremely limited and that makes it difficult to connect to.
So we can play “baby shark” or sing nursery rhymes, or play them “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. They might enjoy both, but one definitely would be harder to “comprehend” and have a proper connection with.
I mean… as if a kid has seen a baby shark before… or a grandma shark… sharks don’t even really have family ties like that… how are they gunna connect to that!?
So there’s a number of studies and stuff that was done along with Sesame Street and I think Sesame Street was really a result of it.
The number one factor for kids paying attention and enjoying something is, are they understanding it? The moment they don’t understand, they look away/stop paying attention.
Thus, a lot of kids’ songs and kid TV shows are simpler, so they’re able to follow it the whole way through. Adult songs can have a longer period before the resolution of understanding or tention.
I thought this before I became a parent too. There’s even a Portlandia episode where some parents get together to form an experimental rock band and play for the school but the kids prefer the goofy musician with dumb lyrics. I think it’s simple lyrics so they can sing along and there are often gestures that go along with it which they think is fun. It’s hard to do silly dances to AC/DC.
Age -appropriate themes and awareness
Everyone has already discussed why kids like kids music and mentioned that they can also like other kinds. But let me give you an idea of how far that can go.
My 2y/o likes kids music a lot, including disney soundtracks and such. But he also loves and specifically requests such artists as: Pink Floyd (since you mention them), Beatles, dire straits, Taylor swift, Led Zeppelin. Now some of his absolute favorites are (believe it or not): freakin Meshuggah, Tool, Death, Gojira, Spiritbox, Mastodon, Megadeth, Sunn O))). Put Meshuggah on and he just spins and spins and spins and falls over.
My daughter grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett. She knew all the words!
They don’t *have* to, they just *like* to. It’s often more fun and engaging for them.
If you let them listen to “adult” songs, as long as they’re appropriate what happens? I mean, nothing, really. They’ll like some of it, and not like some of it too. We listen to the classic rock station in the car a lot, my daughter *really* likes Queen. (And Styx, weirdly. I don’t get it.)
But when they *do* hear “kid’s music”, they tend to be really drawn to it. (You’ve already gotten a lot of comments as to why.) Most parents aren’t going to deny their kids enjoying music they really like, even if we as adults find a lot of it annoying.
The playlist we have for my daughter is mostly a mishmash of classic rock, folk, indie, oldies, and kids songs (more Raffi than things like Baby Shark.) If she hears a song she likes, we add it on. If we think of a song we like has appropriate lyrics, we add that on too. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing.
Simplicity helps them learn.
This is probably how people learn to ignore lyrics so easily and listen to subliminal garbage.
This is a great question! It’s kind of like food: you start feeding your child simple, individual foods. Then as they grow older, their repertoire grows and (hopefully) their palate becomes more sophisticated.
The thing about music is that everyone has their own tastes, and that taste in music can even change over time.
So, it’s about finding music that brings joy to your child. Just like with foods, they’ll be naturally exposed to more complicated music that they’ll grow to love when you are listening to it. (Because you can’t listen to children’s music 24/7!)
Music is powerful stuff. Even for kids. There are children’s songs that’ll expand your child’s understanding of your love for them, songs that will make them laugh, songs that’ll help them when they’re feeling scared, and songs that will help them with the things they need to do (like cleaning songs).
Adult emotions are complicated, and our song lyrics have nuance. A young child will not be able to connect with most lyrics of adult songs. So, we offer them songs that are relatable to their world and their experience.
They also may connect strongly with the sounds of the songs apart from the music. One of my young children emotionally connected with the music of Andrea Bocelli, even though the lyrics were in Italian.
There is quality children’s music out there and there’s also lame-ass trash. Use the same litmus you use for kids shows. A quality kids show will be pleasant to watch even for an adult. Bluey would be a good example.
My nieces and nephew listened to Ween, Frank Zappa and The Beatles when they were with me and loved it. Nothing too swear-y. Ocean Man and Montana were big hits.
They don’t *have* to be. And actually there’s plenty of kids music being made in “adult” genres, like rock, pop, and even metal. As a kid I had plenty of “kids music” (which was nothing like baby shark, and more like folk music), but I also listened to whatever my parents were listening to, usually in the car. So it was a lot of music from the 60s and 70s mostly, and whatever was on the radio. My father preferred oldies stations and my mom preferred oldies, country, and “easy listening” stations. Pretty sure by the age of 10 I had memorized the majority of the Beatles catalogue; definitely all their hits.
Weight of the lyrics. Kids aren’t stupid. “I’m not afraid of dying, any time will do, doesn’t bother me” “am I gonna die?, what happens when I die?”
They hear the lyrics and understand them. I cringe when I’m in a sub for some band and it’s like “My six year old recognized james hetfeild!” LIke, ok, cool, but, why is your 6 year old listening to Metallica? Does she need to hear songs about war, mental illness and death? Let her be 6. I LOVE metallica, but it’s not kids music. Floyd? some stuff is OK (seamus, instrumentals, lot of the post-waters stuff) but DSOTM themes rely heavily on the concept of death and fear of wasted life. Kids will learn that in due time, no need to rush it.
My kid gets to hear adult music, but stuff where the subject matter is a bit more coded. Like the beatles is a better example. yellow submarine, octopus’s garden, she loves you, OK. But not maxwell’s silver hammer, or ‘a day in the life’ or tomorrow never knows.
My kid’s favorite ‘adult’ songs are the Ghostbusters song, Yellow Submarine, and Eye of the Tiger. I’ll play classical, jazz, blues, and rock in the car with them, but i’m mindful of the subject matter.
Children’s songs tend to be simpler and have themes kids enjoy. They usually are very repetitive with easy to learn and say lyrics, and with quite a few having educational value, it helps them learn. Manny are also sung by characters they like if they’re from children’s shows, or are about things they enjoy. Many also have colorful and animated music videos that capture and hold their attention.
Contrast a lot of children’s music to “adult” music and it’s a stark difference in how it’s presented, which is the biggest source of appeal vs disinterest for a child
Children are constantly absorbing information and learning. Children’s songs often teach them basic things. It’s designed to be engaging for them, so I guess if your child is engaged with Metallica then that’s also fine 😂
When I was a tot I loved The Tide is High. Why? Because it was catchy and simple. Not so much my parents’ Simon and Garfunkel.
Because kids’ songs and books and movies are also about teaching how life works, simple routines, easily memorisable words. Kids respond to repetition and simple notes and easy patterns. They love anything they can dance to. They respond well to themes that are familiar to them like school and friends and adventure. I think the existential angst can wait till they’re 10 or 11. I may be old fashioned, but children’s entertainment is different and should be different to what older teens and adults find entertaining.
I don’t and won’t have children, but I always figured that if I did, I’d just play a lot of They Might Be Giants and make everyone happy
I listened to pink Floyd as a kid. I think “children’s music” meant to mean that there’s no swearing or inappropriate things that they could hear (sexual, violent, etc.) but over time it unfortunately has devolved into baby shark
Children’s music is supposed to be bright happy easy to follow and repetitive.
All of these ingredients are what help children develop their language skills.
Listening to Pink Floyd might be enjoyable for them but they won’t get much out of it
If you think baby shark is encompassing of “children music” then I pray you never have children.
Actual children’s music convey simple and repeatable info. Songs like “wheels on the bus,” “itsy bitsy spider,” and “fruit salad” all teach kids words/colors/actions/animals/things in a simple fashion that they can then repeat and learn from.