You're In The Jungle Baby...

Yesterday we took the kids to see Megamind. For a 3 year old Zoe can sit quietly through most movies, but she's still too little to be able to hold her bladder through a whole movie. Of course, the big fight scene during the climax of the movie is when she she turns to me and screams "I NEEDS to POTTY NOW!"  As we were rushing back into the theatre from our little "break," the hero and the villain are battling it out on the big screen to the sounds of one of my all time favorite songs, "Welcome To The Jungle."

Uh... wait a moment??

"Welcome To The Jungle"? You mean the song about drugs and hard city living? You mean from the 1987 Guns 'n Roses album Appetite for Destruction, where the original album art was banned because it was a robot alien raping a girl? You mean the song whose B-side on the single was "Mr. Brownstone," the song about heroin addiction?

Yup. And it's in a kid's movie.

I am in no way uptight about or overprotective of my kids' sensitive ears. That is very much evidenced by the fact that my children listen to Katy Perry. But I will say that I was slightly taken aback by this song. To me, GnR and Appetite for Destruction represented my first break from parental approved music. That first album (yes, I had the LP) that my mom made a disapproving face at, the first time I was yelled at to "turn that noise down." "Welcome to the Jungle" was the first toe into my pool of adolescent discord. This was a song that made our mothers cringe and grandmothers cry! And now my 6 year old song is walking around asking "You know where you are??? You're in the jungle baby!" This song that I once hailed as the theme song of bad-ass rock is now appropriate for a cartoon movie.

Tonight we turned on Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief to watch with Lucas. While the plot may be pushing a bit with Lucas, he loves Greek mythology and movies like this. During one of the scenes featuring the three teenage stars of the movie driving down the street, AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" blared in the background. Unfazed by it at all, Lucas turns to Jason and comments, "This song sure is in a lot of movies."

Now I'm left wondering, are we raising a generation of children that can't be shocked? Of which no word, no song, no movie will ever offend or appall them? Or should, as parents, we just be very scared about what they will find to horrify us in the future?