A "Got to Do Better" Moment.

Somewhere, somebody is drinking Moscato, listening to “I Invented Sex”, and getting knocked up.
Beautiful.
What’s not beautiful?
They’re probably about 17 years old.

What the hell, colored folk?
I remember a time when grown-folk music was more than just the title of someone’s album.  Grown folk music was meant for…well,…grown folk.  Now, I guess all bets are off.  And you know whose fault it is?  OURS.
I wasn’t planning on doing a “Valentine’s Day”, post, but as I went on a little therapeutic shower curtain shopping spree today, (Don’t judge me, my husband was at work), I stopped into Burlington Coat Factory to raid the housewares section.  As I was walking in, a young mother of two was on her way out.  Behind her, the two boys, ages about 13 and 8 were trailing.  Nothing suspicious or out of order there.  But then, as they neared the door, I heard the younger one singing to himself,
“I am on a 24 hour, Champagne Diet…”

Now, I like Drake as much as the next radio victim, but for real mom, your eight year old is singing about drinking liquor for 24 hours and that’s cool?  That’s in style this season?  Get the frick outta here!

It gave me pause.

Do we not hear what our kids are listening to, or are we so busy listening to it ourselves, that we just don’t care?

But beyond that…my issue is that we have more power over our generational curses than we give ourselves credit for.
Our youth are far too sexually aware of themselves.  This is not to say that folk weren’t having babies when I was in high school, or even when my MOTHER was in school.  What I am saying is that the script has flipped so damn much that our kids are feeling like outsiders when they DON’T have sex, or when they DON’T want to be as try-sexual as everyone else.  What is wrong with this picture?

This is what I believe mainstream America is seeing from our community:

Meanwhile, this is what ELSE is going on,

I know what you’re thinking.  Damn, Mrs.Tiye, all that from a kid singing a song?
NO.
All this from not only that kid, but the chick I ALSO saw who was every bit of 16, wearing see-through leggings and a too-short tee…IN CHICAGO, in 18 degree weather.    That’s cute?  That’s hot this season?
Are folk SCARED to parent?  How you let your BABY out the house in that?

All this comes from watching younger sisters of my community brandishing their war-torn love stories all over Facebook.  Seriously babe?  Six weeks of you telling the WORLD how flucked up dude is all over the net, but then you got hugged up pictures on there today because someone’s random status message said post a pic of you and your boo for Valentine’s week?

Egads.

We gotta do better folk.  We gotta do better because these little girls are trying to be the “I Got this”, women that their mothers had to become. They don’t know or CARE, that their mothers had no choice, it looks good on the outside and they have NO understanding of what was going on behind the scenes.  And these little boys are trying to be the daddy’s that they saw their daddy’s and uncles being; dropping kids all over the place without sending a dime or instilling ANY wisdom.  They don’t know how to help the girls because they’ve only seen their mothers “do it all”, so in their minds, they shouldn’t HAVE to help.  “If my momma took care of me and my brothers/sisters without my daddy help, or with only a welfare check, why the hell you always asking ME for money”.

They got the game allll twisted and what are we doing about it?  Nothing.  Walking ahead while they are listening to Nicki Minaj and Usher tell them that its cool to send your girl out scouting for a girl to have a threesome with.  And from all the glamorization of sex, and the overindulgence of false “independence”, we end up with kids who have kids, who will ALSO not know how to do anything but Fake it till they make it.

I know this post is all over the place.  I know that.  But I’m so damn sick of us producing fruit that is overripe and falling to the ground.  We have got to tend this tree.