I feel so terrible right now

I decided to make a mix CD for an eight-year-old girl I know. I wanted to introduce her to a different type of music (she's only heard country) and I put songs from Yo La Tengo, Weezer, Belle and Sebastian, Old 97's, The La's, Eels, The Shins, Wilco, etc. on there. Well, I didn't know that her mom is really, really religious, and one of the songs, Neko Case's "Hold On, Hold On," mentions the devil. Her mom is totally against anything having to do with the devil, witchcraft, Wicca, etc (yes, her mom is a right-winger). I was trying to avoid songs with curse words, obviously, and all I could remember of the lyrics of that song was that there weren't any actual curse words in it. Plus, like I said, I didn't know her mom was super-religious so even if I'd been smart and actually listened to the song (because for the life of me I couldn't remember what the lyrics were), I still wouldn't have thought it was anything to worry about. When my mom found out (she asked me if I put any Neko Case songs on the CD, and I said yes, and she asked which one, and I said "Hold On, Hold On,") she said she wasn't mad at me, because she knew I was trying to be nice (I was), but that the girl's mom had probably just thrown the CD away, if she'd heard the song and figured out what the words were. I hope she didn't, but even if she did, that song was track 4, so I'm pretty sure she heard Yo La Tengo (and dammit, it was a cover song--"Griselda"--so she hasn't actually heard any real Yo La Tengo yet), Old 97's, and The Shins.

I've felt dejected all day. I mean the girl's mom has known me since I was 13, so I'm sure she wouldn't suspect me of trying to corrupt her daughter on purpose (I love that kid. She's adorable. My mom was over at their house and she said that the girl said that God wasn't perfect--she got in major trouble for that--so I'm thinking there's hope for her yet, if that's her attitude toward religion at the age of eight. She's actually very intelligent for her age). But I'm also thinking that it's impossible for her to have never once heard a song with the word "devil" in it. I don't know many country songs but don't a lot of them mention the devil, even in passing? And I wonder what her mom does when they're in the store and they go into the cake mix aisle and see the packages of devil's food cake? Or a can of deviled ham? Or deviled eggs? :shrug:

I'm sorry, I just needed to write this out and get it off my chest.

i wouldn't feel bad at all.

if they don't like it, they don't have to listen to it :)

People are so hard on themselves for things just about everyone else would brush off as a mild faux pas. You gave your little friend a gift to expand her tastes. There's nothing wrong with that at all. The child sees hundreds of worse things every day on TV. The super-religious have got to adjust themselves to the ethos of the society in which we live. That may be easy for me to say, but people acquire wisdom by being exposed to a lot of different things.

Chin up, sweetheart. :patriot:

I do tend to beat myself up for minor things.

is a myth to some extent. Her mother is setting her offspring up for some really rude shocks. You can't do that if you hope that your child will one day be able to fend for herself- physically, mentally and emotionally. It's good to believe in something, but I've always believed that censorship takes its toll and the costs are heavy.

My mom is pretty liberal, too, and we didn't even have a religion when I was growing up. I never went to church and I'm an atheist now. But she kept me away from anything violent or sexual or that had curse words in it until I was about fifteen or so.

I didn't even start rebelling until I was in my late teens/early 20s, and when I was a kid I always thought I had to have the same opinions as my mom.

(However, I still haven't gotten the courage to get a tattoo yet, but I want one)

The girl's mom is about the same age as my mom. This is her youngest daughter. One of her sons was in my same class in school.

"Try as I might I could not understand
Why the Almighty's all-merciful hand
Should cast away those whose only mistake
Was never to know the Christian faith."
--The Divine Comedy, "The Plough"

Or like, German death metal? No biggie.

I did put Wilco's "Heavy Metal Drummer" on there, but I wrote "this is not actually a heavy-metal song" next to it on the tracklisting.