{"id":745,"date":"2012-10-04T01:01:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T07:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/?p=745"},"modified":"2012-10-03T14:51:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T20:51:50","slug":"do-you-know-what-songs-your-kids-just-downloaded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/afewgrownmen\/2012\/10\/do-you-know-what-songs-your-kids-just-downloaded\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know What Songs Your Kids Just Downloaded?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Digital Music sales is up 15 percent from last year, and America is on pace to break 2011\u2019s record<\/a> of purchasing 1.3 billion digital tracks.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it\u2014American\u2019s love their music.<\/p>\n

The question is, do you know what your kids are downloading?<\/p>\n

Let me be clear. I\u2019m not recommending that you become a helicopter parent, hide in the bushes and watch your kids walk to the bus stop in the morning. But the polar opposite\u2014letting them do whatever they like\u2014isn\u2019t the solution either.<\/p>\n

So how can parents keep an eye on their kids media choices without being that \u2018creepy\u2019 parent?<\/p>\n

Glad you asked.<\/p>\n

The answer? Regular conversations.<\/em> Not lectures, not random iPod checks\u2026 conversations<\/em>. This works especially well if you start this when they\u2019re young.<\/p>\n

Let me introduce you to a wonderful tool that Apple has called Home Sharing<\/em>. When my girls were first interested in an iTunes account, I set up their computer with my own iTunes account and activated Home Sharing<\/em> through the iTunes \u201cAdvanced\u201d menu. This means whenever they download a song, I get it too. Whenever I download a song, they get it too.<\/p>\n

This has been a lot of fun. Now that they\u2019re teenagers, we\u2019ll often ask each other, \u201cHave you heard that new song from The Script<\/em>?\u201d or \u201cHey, you downloaded a new Gungor<\/em> song. That was awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

Home Sharing<\/em> has opened doors to a geyser of conversation about music in my home.<\/p>\n

When I share this with parents at my parent workshops<\/a>, they\u2019ll often tell me, \u201cThis would have been good to know 5 years ago! What do I do now that my kids listen to pure garbage? How do I monitor that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, regular conversations<\/em>, and a few guardrails.<\/p>\n

Chapter 6 of my parenting book<\/a> is titled, \u201cDad, Can I Download This Song?\u201d<\/em> This entire chapter helps parents set simple guidelines for downloading music\u2014guidelines such as, \u201cyou must download the lyrics and talk about them with mom or dad before downloading.\u201d This guardrail creates\u2026 actually, requires\u2026 conversations.<\/p>\n

Parenting isn\u2019t easy. But it gets much harder when the channels of communication are broken in the home.<\/p>\n

Open up the channels of communication in your home. You can start today. If your kids like music, try any of these openers, depending on their musical taste and style:<\/p>\n