My daughter takes voice lessons. She has a great voice and one of my favorite things is to listen to her sing At Last or Ava Maria. One of my not-so-favorite songs is the latest called I Enjoy Being a Girl.
Some of the tasty lyrics include:
When men say I’m cute and funny
And my teeth aren’t teeth, but pearl,
I just lap it up like honey
I enjoy being a girl!I flip when a fellow sends me flowers,
I drool over dresses made of lace,
I talk on the telephone for hours
With a pound and a half of cream upon my face!
and finally:
When men say I’m sweet as candy
As around in a dance we whirl,
It goes to my head like brandy,
I enjoy being a girl!When I hear the compliment’ry whistle
That greets my bikini by the sea,
I turn and I glower and I bristle,
But I’m happy to know the whistle’s meant for me!
Now, what mom wouldn’t want her daughter to sing that song? You know, though, that I try to be as supportive as I can. I know she has to sing it week after week and that she didn’t pick it and that she really has no control over the situation, but I guess she could tell it was driving me crazy because this afternoon on the way home she started singing it like this:
The men say I’m very smart
I dance around them in a whirl,
They know I have a great, big heart,
I enjoy being a girl!I don’t care if I’m short or tall,
I like me the way I is,
My whole life I’m going to have a ball
My size is not your biz!
I had started tuning her out as soon as I realized what song she was practicing. I made a left turn and then a right turn. I went over the grocery list in my head. And then right about the time I started merging onto the freeway and thinking ‘soy milk and plain yogurt with no artificial sweeteners’ she sang ‘I like me the way I is’ and I started laughing. And laughing. That girl. That twinkle in her eye. Her giggles and laughter. Kills me. I am slayed.
this post makes me feel both relieved and wistful at not having a daughter…
Ugh. First of all, “I Enjoy Being a Girl” is one of my all-time faves. I used to belt it out when I worked in an office full of women in L.A. Then I’d get back to work.
Your Alex is just…just…a ray of sunshine! Those squinty, bright eyes are too much. That face.
What a great kid.
Pioneer Woman – if you sing it in your ethel merman voice, i’ll listen all day.
AAAWWW! What a great kid!! You’ve done a fine job Momma.
that’s awesome. . . i always just make sure songs like that gem get sung with tongue firmly planted in cheek- like ani difranco singing wishin’ and hopin’ for the my best friends wedding soundtrack.
So awesome to see this after the post re: the Huffington Post post re: “Thin.”
How many friggin’ thing are wrong with that sentence, eh?
Anyhoo – what mother wouldn’t want to hear this from her teenaged daughter’s mouth? It’s a good indication that she’s doing pretty well, and I only hope that in 10 years, I can say the same about my daughter.
the day my daughter was born, one of her soon to be godparents made a ‘welcome’ cd for her – it had this on it, sung by Doris Day, I think. I laughed so hard I had to go get another bag of frozen peas to sit on!!
How do our daughters do this to us? I’m aching a little bit at that picture of yours. Aching. Sympathy Mom Aching.
It’s a new disease I just invented.
Aw shucks, what a cute post about your little girl. Singing is something that I’ve always longed to do. To be born with the talent is awesome.
She is simply wonderful and priceless.