Dirty Dancing

If you grew up sometime in the 80's then you know all about the movie, "Dirty Dancing". If your a GIRL who grew up in the 80's, then you may have the entire movie memorized. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" hahaha

I remember that back in those days, I was just newly adopted by my new white family. They were super strict Christians and in order to listen to the latest music, or see the hottest movies, I had to go over a friends house and do it there. I remember when I first heard of New Kids On The Block. My friend Del, called them NKOTB, and I was like, "What's NKOTB?" She looked at me in unbelief and immediatly shoved a Teen Beat Magazine into my hands, ( http://xaxor.com/female/17306-funny-covers-of-teen-magazines-from-the-80s.html ) and opened it up on a group shot of The New Kids. She was my music guru of the 80's, showing me the wonders of Madonna, Debbie Gibson, C & C Music Factory, and of course, Tifanny.

My parents did not allow "worldly" or "secular" music into the house. The word "secular" always reminded of me of SATAN, I guess because thats what my parents portrayed. Anyhoo...

When Dirty Dancing came out it was the event of the 80's! Everyone was talking about at school, and everyone loved it. I couldn't wait to see it, so the next time our new mom took us to the video store I eagerly grabbed the box that said "Dirty Dancing" on it, and on the cover you could see Patrick Swazy and Jennifer Gray dancing. Well, when we got up to the counter, my mother collected all the video's and had a look over them. She always did this, so as not to get anything "unappropriate". Sure as shit, she got to the Dirty Dancing Movie Cover, took one look at the title, and scolded me for bringing up to the counter. "No way!" she said, and told me to go put it back. I was so embarassed that she would do that me in public, and so mad that she was so old fashioned. I remember this being a common theme as I grew up. I hated it.

A couple week later, I went to spend the weekend at my best friends house in the country. Her mom and dad were so, so cool. Since her mom worked alot, as a nurse, and did alot of shift work, I often slept over and me and my friend would spend the weekend, alone, in front of the t.v. So when my friends mom took us to the same video store on that friday, I excitedly ran to where "Dirty Dancing" was displayed, and grabbed the box. My friend squealed with delight, and we rented it, with no questions asked. I couldn't wait to get back to the farm and see it.

You know, as a Christian mom now, I get why my parents did what they did. I understand the intentions behind it. But unfortunatly, their "Christian Bubble" that they tried so hard to raise me in, just made me even more curious about the world. I was told about all the evils of the world, but at the same time, saw all my friends(and thats not an exaggeration) participating in the devils world, and saw that they seemed fine. I saw kids that learned to look after themselves since they were in grade 5, while my parents still hired a babysitter until I was 16 years old.(Totally embarrassing!) I saw my friends go to dances, while my parents promised me that dancing leads to sex on the dancefloor. Was I ever shocked when I snuck off to my first dance(in grade 10), and didn't see anyone having sex OR dirty dancing! I was so nerdy and geeky back then I couldn't get within 6 feet of a boy without getting embarassed and shy. And even at the highschool level, there were hardly any girls actually dancing with boys. There was a boy group here, and a girl group there, and so on and so forth. Real cheezy, and I thought, "Wow, I guess I havnt been missing much."

Now that I am a mother, and yes, a Christian, I wonder what kind of parent I am going to be. I really want to teach Ray from an early age HOW to make good decisions, and I want her to know that I trust her. I don't want to hold her back from feeling confident and be making all her little decions for her, but I DO want to protect her from the world. I think I'll be ok at doing this. Not only am I working NOW on earning her trust and respect, but I am willing to keep learning and about good parenting. And I have to say, that no, there will be no Rhianna albums in our house ever, and probably not any Katy Perry either. I want Raya to look up to women who respect themselves so in that respect I will put my foot down. However, I think I have enough life experience to make sure I'm not just "the Boss" and hope that Raya will understand that I will always listen to her, and if need be that a movie comes out with a similar title to "Dirty Dancing", that I will remember my childhood, and just download the darn movie, and pop some popcorn, and have a girls nite with my little love.