My 4-year-old daughter said she wanted a ukelele and my 8-year-old said she wanted a guitar. Then they asked what Pearl Jam songs I thought they should play.

I just found that very amusing. Their father says I'm brainwashing them. He didn't say it was brainwashing when my oldest was 2-months-old and Release being played was the only thing that made her stop crying. And even if it is...at least I don't have to listen to a lot of crap in the car.

Wouldn't you find it cool to have kids that ask you to put Pearl Jam on, or can't wait for you to finish downloading the dvd of the first concert that they went to? My 8-year-old is almost as excited as I am about a new album. And she loves to wear her PJ t-shirt to dance class, so everyone knows that's her favorite band. (I think I need to get her a few more)

I know I can't have the only kids like this, so who else has one?

I'm in High School.

I hope, then, that you're saying you have no kids.

Yes, I am childless.


But when I do have kids, I hope they like Pearl Jam and are as cool as your kids. Or at least I hope they have a good taste in music and are not influenced by the mainstream pop crap.

that sounds cool. I'm also in high school and childless but when i was younger and my dad bought our first cd player ever, i listened to his elton john cd all the time. I played crocidile rock over and over till I memorized it. and my mom never tuned the radio away from country, so garth brooks was deifnitely my man. but thank God for a friend in the 4th grade who let me borrow his Bush album and brought me over to rock.

Parent influence is cool in music but I wouldn't shove it down throats. if my kids wanted to listen to Avril, by God I'd let them. Just never around me.

Yeah, the latter is what you should hope for. Loving Pearl Jam is the icing on the cake for me.

Garth Brooks was the first concert I ever went to. I loved it.

When I was a kid, I used to listen to my mom's Conway Twitty 8-track all friggin day long. That and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. I actually grew up listening to alot of "oldies" radio and got into modern rock right about G'n'R time.

Then Nevermind came out and I air drummed it for at least an hour a day (and I'm a damn guitar player). Ahh..the good ole days.

I hope my kids don't say anything like, I can't believe I used to listen to stuff my mom likes.

We'll have to get this cover band started now, just in case they don't like Pearl Jam when they're older.

I hope my children have independent minds and find their own way instead of searching for musical taste through me.

My daughter is 4 and her favourite song is Dirty Frank. She thinks Dirty Frank is the funniest thing you can say, she will go up to complete strangers and blurt out "Dirty Frank" and then laugh her ass off. I went to the Asheville show in Oct. and she asked me where I was going and I said to a concert and she says "to see the guys who play Dirty Frank?" Hopefully if there is a tour in another 4 or 5 years she will want to go with me.

Considering kids are raised by their parents, they search for a lot through them.

If i ever have kids i plan on warping their minds with my music at a very early age.

I hope my kids are pearl jam loving baseball freaks.

I don't want to derail the thread or anything but im a parent and of course I want my children to be able to be independent people but I also have a job to shape my kids minds in the way that I think they should. If I don't do it then tv or someone else will. Kids learn how to behave they don't just come up with their own way of behaving, and if shaping my childrens minds includes making them PJ fanatics I think thats all the better.

I was young during the early 90's when Pearl Jam was huge, and my Dad loved grunge/alternative music. All I remember hearing from him as a child is Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Blind Melon, etc etc.

But, the thing is, I absolutely DESPISED this music. He would play Pearl Jam in the car with me and my sister, who was 2 years younger than me. She, at 6 years old, would be banging her head along to Evenflow, while I'd be covering my ears.

Years later, I rediscovered the music I hated and fell in love with it all, particularly Pearl Jam.

The funny thing is...The music I DID like as a child? Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Heart. I suppose I subconsiously hated grunge for killing my music.

My parents always told me to "turn that garbage off".

The "garbage" they referred to was The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Bee Gees, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), and Queen.

He would then make us sit and listen to Barbara Streisand, siting "now that's good music".

Of course, at age 71 he seems to enjoy The Bee Gees now. Go figure.


The fact that your children are so young and not only appreciate that you appreciate Pearl Jam, but want to pick up instruments and play Pearl Jam songs, is "alright" in my book simply because any child showing an interest in learning how to play an instrument should be encouraged to do so 100%.

c-

I have two daughters, 7 1/2 and 5. They got "electric" guitars with little amps and microphones for Christmas last year, and I videotaped them strumming and singing "The moon is rolling 'round the world" over and over and over. They used to ask, "Is this Eddie?" everytime they heard a guy singing on the radio or on one of my CDs, but now they're better at picking him out on their own (I play PJ a lot, so they're usually right). They (and my husband) gave me a Pearl Jam t-shirt for my birthday last September which I proudly wore to Boston I. I was pregnant with my older daughter when I saw PJ in Hartford in October 1996--I guess in utero brainwashing is the best way to go.

That's awesome. My girls used to ask the same thing, "Is this Eddie?" They usually know now.

Boston 2 is where we bought our 8-year-old her shirt. She got to pick it out. We lost the transmission in our car on the way to Boston that day. We thought we weren't going to be able to go and she was so upset. So finally getting there (unbelievably, on time) and being able to get her something to remember our crazy day meant a lot to her.

And the reason Release is the only song that put her to sleep as a baby is probably because of "in utero brainwashing".

I'm 24, but my fiance's 11 year old, who I live with, loves Outkast. That's pretty fucking cool in my book, but recently I introduced him to The Ramones, whom he is fucking loving. Then he asked me to teach him to play guitar. Do the Evolution is now his favorite riff, and Crazy Train is what he's currently working on. Just the intro.