From Teen to Twerk

By Nicole Goodman

This week if you open your internet browser to any page you are most likely going to see something about Miley Cyrus at the VMAs. One side will say how trashy or tasteless her performance was and the other will talk about letting her be the sexual person she is. Why is this topic so intriguing? You don’t see anyone talking about Lady Gaga’s risqué performance, or Miley’s co-partner Robin Thicke. I believe it is such a controversy solely because she grew up as a child star, living her life as a role model to young girls. She was never meant to be ‘sexy’ like Gaga or Thicke. Her whole previous career was living this innocent life, being controlled by Disney and her young fan base. But what does this have to do with us Jews?

Jewish parents to their kids are like Disney to Miley.  In today’s world we see more and more of what we call helicopter parents. These common parent breeds try to control every aspect of their kid’s lives. They need to know at all times where they’re going, what they’re doing, and who they’ll be with. Even more so they want to know what homework they have every night, what their exact grade is in every class, what they ate for lunch that day, and monitor their outfit choices. Even though this seems to have minimum consequences, how is it really affecting kids? I believe that when kids are overly restricted when they are young, there is more of a chance they will lash out when they get older.

Most people want what they can’t have. When I see parents restricting kids from normal teen experiences such as going to a party, going out with friends, eating what they want, or sexual relationships, the end result is often not up to par with the parent’s initial goal. When the kids turn into young adults and go to college, or just move out of the house they feel that they NEED to do everything they were restricted from for so long. Usually it’s not in normal doses. They excessively make up for all the years they believe they missed out on. Just like how Disney held back Miley from being a normal teen, having her constantly portray the innocent role, helicopter parents make teens feel like they are being restrained from the norm. The real question is will you wait until your son/daughter lashes out on stage twerking?