{"id":3883,"date":"2014-04-10T07:58:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T11:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=3883"},"modified":"2016-01-18T19:18:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T00:18:46","slug":"struggling-with-the-sexiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/struggling-with-the-sexiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling with the Sexiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t let my kids watch a lot of TV.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just because the AAP says not to or because other mommies might judge me, it\u2019s because I want them engaged in more meaningful things and more importantly, I need it to \u201cwork.\u201d\u00a0 I call it my\u00a0\u201cMommy Magic\u201d<\/a>\u00a0because I can put on a Disney movie and my girls will sit and watch the whole thing without moving or making a peep (I can only imagine what effect\u00a0Frozen<\/a>\u00a0would have!) so I save it when I really need them quiet and safe while I do something important (this is maybe 5 times a YEAR!)<\/p>\n

What I do let them watch more often, though, is cooking, travel and dance shows.\u00a0 Being a dancer myself, I like shows like\u00a0Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, Dance Moms, Breaking Pointe, Bunheads, Dance Academy<\/em>\u00a0(you get the picture, basically any show in existence that involves dance).\u00a0 I keep them away from the drama filled ones (like\u00a0Dance Moms<\/em>) and the fictional ones (like\u00a0Bunheads<\/em>) but I do let them, on occasion, watch the competition ones.\u00a0 I figure, it\u2019s mostly dancing so what\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n

My three year old LOVES\u00a0Dancing with the Stars<\/em>\u00a0and begs for it daily (luckily it\u2019s only on once a week) and cries when during the \u201coff-season\u201d (which isn\u2019t very often!)\u00a0 but I\u2019ve noticed something this season that is making me wonder if she should be watching it: there\u2019s a lot of \u201csexiness\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"I\u2019m not just talking about the costumes or \u201csuggestive\u201d dance moves, those have always been there and don\u2019t bother me because it is part of the reality of the dance world.\u00a0 Professional dancers wear skimpy costumes all the time, though I do commend Candace Cameron Beret on insisting on more modest costumes for herself (but the crotch-high slits do leave me scratching my head). \u00a0And as far as the dancing goes, the dance moves are the technique of each dance.\u00a0 Most ballroom dances started as popular or club dances so do have a bit of \u201cnaughty\u201d in them.<\/p>\n

What bothers me is the constant verbal references to being sexy and having sex appeal which has made me wonder: Is \u201cSexy\u201d a 4 letter word?\u00a0 Should I be keeping it away from my kids?\u00a0 If they ask about it (which luckily they haven\u2019t yet!) what am I going to say?\u00a0 What do I want them to know about it?\u00a0 How do I want them to treat it?<\/p>\n

\"\"I know I don\u2019t want my three and five year olds trying to be sexy (I\u2019ve scolded my mom before for calling Honeybun \u201csexy\u201d in her bathing suit) but I also don\u2019t want them thinking it\u2019s something they have to be when they are older.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want them to ever think their worth is based on their \u201csexiness\u201d or to think that people won\u2019t like them if they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve luckily avoided most talk about sex thus far aside from one incident about two years ago when Honeybun (then three years old) asked \u201cWhat is sex?\u201d\u00a0 and I panicked inside cursed the world and calmly replied \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like beer, you can\u2019t have it until you\u2019re an adult.\u201d\u00a0 And that worked, nothing more about it since.\u00a0 But I worry, will how do you explain \u201csexy\u201d without the sex?<\/p>\n

What do you think, does \u201csexy\u201d belong on the 4-letter bad word list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t let my kids watch a lot of TV.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just because the AAP says not to or because other mommies might judge me, it\u2019s because I want them engaged in more meaningful things and more importantly, I need it to \u201cwork.\u201d\u00a0 I call it my\u00a0\u201cMommy Magic\u201d\u00a0because I can put on a Disney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[163,164,165],"class_list":["post-3883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-family-life","tag-dancing-with-the-stars","tag-kids","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3883"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3891,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions\/3891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}