On Saturday night Mr M’s niece got married. Weddings being festive occasions, the music was playing and the dancing was aplenty.
And it’s really not that much of a stretch that the DJ played “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This being a favourite from my childhood I grabbed my 10 year old son and said “C’mon, dance with me” with a cheshire cat style grin on my face.
Now while I was jumping to the left, my 10 year old had that look of ‘I’m alert…not yet alarmed…but we’re getting there’.
But all that changed when I brought my knees in tight and started doing the pelvic thrust.
“Mum,” he exclaimed. “It looks like you’re twerking” and with that he spun on his heel and took off.
Now I’m sure the emphatic pelvic thrust from Time Warp does not come close to look like twerking. For starters, it’s comical; not sexual. Context is key.
But all this didn’t matter to my 10 year old. All he saw was his mother dancing in a way that he’s not used to seeing.
Which got me to thinking; when I was younger I had to curb my behaviour in front of my parents so they didn’t think I was doing anything inappropriate and now I have to curb my behaviour in front of my kids so they don’t think I’m doing anything inappropriate. Don’t want to lead to any misunderstandings.
Not that it is news to anyone. Moderating your behaviour to suit who is in the room is not specific to my generation.
My parents always behaved liked well-behaved parents. I never got a glimpsed into their younger selves. So as a negative consequence I never saw them as people; they were just my parents.
So while I’m not about to impart with my secrets on how I tried to cheat in my school exams (don’t try it kids, it didn’t work out so good) I will dance my Time Warp and stand at a distance if you must but this is who I am.
