Lady Gaga's Biggest Fan - and her Mommie's

Anybody who knows Mishayla knows she loves Lady Gaga.

She likes other music artists as well, like Adele, and Taylor Swift and Rascal Flats.  But Lady Gaga is her all time favorite. 

She listens to her music for hours, and watches her videos.  She has her posters in her room.  When she is on TV, the excitement on her face is contagious.  It lights up with joy.

Some people have said this is not someone that would be a good role model for any child because of her extreme eccentricity and her propensity to, on more than one occasion, exploit her own sexuality. 

I admit when she got interested in Lady Gaga, I was a bit nervous.  I still check on her when she is on the internet to make sure what she is watching is nothing unsavory.  Of course some would argue that everything about Lady Gaga is unsavory (remember the outfit that was made of beef?)

I was really worried when she wanted a recent issues of Vanity Fair magazine that had a spread of Lady Gaga.  One of the pictures was a nude shot, taken from the side, with singer Tony Bennett painting her (I didn't know Tony Bennett was a painter, pretty cool!!)

I showed it to Tony, wanting to know what he would think.  "You can't see anything, it's just an art piece,"he said. 

So because of Daddy, she got the magazine.  I'm glad, because the pleasure she gets from it gives me almost as much pleasure as it gives her.

Lady Gaga is an amazing entertainer; there can be no doubt of that.  And as for the eccentricity, it's really nothing new; she just does it a lot better than most. 

It makes me think of my own childhood, and the things we used to think were so eccentric.  In the 70s we were ending the hippie era with long haired, screaming rockers that threw their hair everywhere, poured glitter all over their faces and embraced androgyny.  And as far as blatant sexually goes, we had Michael Jackson's provocative dance moves, and of course there is Madonna......say no more about that one.  If you were around in the 1980s, you certainly remember.

And our parents worried and fretted we were embracing inappropriate role models, and we would think our parents weren't "hip" or "cool," and we swore we would never be like that....

Oops......don't look know........but it's evitable; you end up doing what every parents does, that is, wanting to protect your child. 

Yet I also want her to experience the world, and to learn to embrace it.  I think she does do that.  I let her take my laptop in her room, close the door, and explore the internet.  And yes, I check on her, but I'm not hypervigilant about it.  I make sure she is protected from anything harmful, and I leave it at that.  

And while she loves Lady Gaga, what is the thing I find her listening to the most? It's actually a audio file I made for a voice class I took a few years ago.  I had completely forgotten to delete it, and one day, I heard her listening to it. 

"That's you singing, Mommy," she said proudly.  I hear her listening to that as much as Lady Gaga.

So while we parents will never quite reach the heights of a Lady Gaga, we ultimately will be something these artists can never be to our children.

Simply, Mom and Dad.