Do you ever remember having the, "Everyone gets to do Everything and I Never get to do Anything" talk with your parents? I sure do, you probably do too, unless you were the youngest child, in which case, you were the "Everyone that got to do Everything." Those parents who go around buying their teenage kids alcohol and throwing them parties and letting them run amuck are doing nothing close to parenting, they are doing their kids a dis-service. While they may seem like the "Cool parents" at the time, it doesn't do anything for your kids, other than tell them they can brake or disregard rules/laws without consequences. Well my parents were definitely the parents that didn't let us do everything, they did let us do somethings, but they also did their best to use their judgement on what activities they allowed us to participate in or what television programs we were permitted to watch. For instance, I was not allowed to watch such shows as Power Rangers, Rugrats, or Pokemon, this limited my options for television time, it forced me to be more creative with my free time, I turned to music. It also helped shape my values as a child, instead of watching shows like that, I watched programs such as Arthur, which did its best to use a family of aardvarks to teach life lessons to children. Music is still my outlet for creativity, and with the values that were instilled in me, I don't produce music about how horrible life is and how much hate I have toward the world, rather I make music that, while talking about the struggles in everyday life, it focuses on the hope that there is out there. Here is a sample of my music, and how my parents influence on me affected what I'm doing with my life. While I don't believe them prohibiting me from watching Power Rangers was a pivotal point in my development, it was just one of the many good choices they made in raising me with a core set of values.
http://soundcloud.com/robmahlummusic/falling-feat-joe-jaeger
