Why Did I Teach My Daughter Rachel Platten’s Fight Song?

Reblogged from I Don’t Like Teaching Moral Lessons, There I Said It at MyCity4Kids.com.

I hate teaching any sort of moral lesson to my daughter. I absolutely don’t see any purpose that moral lessons can serve in the life of a 4-year-old child. My problem with them is that most of them are negative, e.g. “if you do this, this bad thing will happen to you” or “if you don’t do this, this bad thing will happen to you.” Think about how many moral stories end up with someone dying. Yeah, a lot of them end with blood. Be it “the hare and the lion” or “the crane and the crab” or “the monkey and the crocodile.”

I strongly feel that for my daughter this is the time when she should explore the world without any inhibition or without any moral policing running at the back of her mind. If she wants to eat cookies without telling me, well, I would say go ahead. I don’t want her to think that even if nobody else is, God’s always watching her. On the contrary, I want her to cherish the taste of yummy cookies guilt free.

So do I teach her anything at all?!

Yes I do. Though rarely, when I do teach her lessons, I teach her those that might help her further in her ow pursuit of happiness. See I don’t want to burden her by telling her to keep others happy. I feel she should be first and foremost concerned about her own happiness. So I teach her lessons that can help her in going out into the world alone. Something like giving her best to whatever she does, never giving up, experiencing life and enjoying every moment of it.

And being one of the weirdest mother on Earth, I teach her these lessons my way – the weird way.

For instance, about a month back I heard Rachel Platten’s Fight Song. Have a look at these lyrics

“Like a small boat, on the ocean

Sending big waves, into motion.

Like how a single word, can make a heart open

I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”

I found these lyrics so profound and decided instantly that I have to teach Little B (that’s my daughter) this song and the lesson it holds – that “if ever you feel alone, small or insignificant in your life, just remember that a single small thing can make a huge impact on things.”

The song is peppy so Little B enjoyed listening to it and learned it within couple of replays. The important issue was making her understand the song.

So I drew this –

I wanted her to see how insignificant a boat can look in the middle of an ocean. And yet the ripples it makes can turn into small waves which in turn can turn into big waves.

And then I told her how sometimes I and she fight and stop talking to each other. We shut our hearts for each other. And then she comes and says “Friends?” and I say yes. How one single word makes our hearts open?!

Then we played videos of Diwali where people are lighting up huge rockets with just a matchstick. A small matchstick is making the rockets go high up in the sky and burst into a thundering sound.

Rachel Platten goes on singing,

“This is my fight song, take back my life song

Prove I’m alright song

My power’s turned on, starting right now I’ll be strong

I’ll play my fight song.

And I don’t really care if nobody else believes,

Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me.”

Since our “lesson teaching class” that day, this song has become Little B’s own song. This is the song she sings when she attempts a higher monkey bar, this is the song she sings when she is trying to read and this is the song she sings when she is trying to make a hopping world record.

So sorry, but no moral lessons for my kid just yet. I would only give her lessons that make her spirits rise higher. Lessons that she can sing to herself to motivate herself. Lessons that are just about her being a stronger, mightier and fiercer person. Lessons that are not about self-doubt or self-scrutiny but about self-surety instead.

She doesn’t need lessons that hold her back; she needs lessons that set her free in the boundless world out there.

P.S. Teaching kids life lessons from Billboard Top 100 songs is unusual, won’t you agree? Let me know some of the unusual places/instances/things that you have used to teach similar lessons to your kids. Comment down below and we will have a warm discussion!