Source: Slate
I’m not much of a ‘Dear Abby’ fan, but Slate‘s ‘Care and Feeding’ column seemed like the perfect place to ask a critical parenting question of mine!
As the father of a newborn daughter, I’m loving all the opportunities to lullaby her to sleep. However, I didn’t see the point in learning a whole new repertoire when I have a collection of Gen X’s greatest tunes already primed to be delivered—it’s soothing and a music education at the same time! And she’s a fan. In fact, the go-to lullaby that always sends her to the land of Nod is Offspring’s “Self Esteem” (“Enter Sandman” by Metallica has, ironically, been less fruitful).
But I begin to wonder: Right now the lyrics are as nonsensical to her as an interspecies romance between and an owl and a pussycat, but that won’t always be the case. At what point do I need to ditch “I wonder why she sleeps with friends” in favor of “Daddy’s gonna buy you a mockingbird”?
![](https://jacobaldridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HELP-Sign-at-Abu-Dhabi-Airport-2019-1-e1582206173179-768x1024.jpg)