This is just one of the terrifying questions I’m anticipating now that the girls have discovered the institution of girlhood that is Grease. Actually, “discovered” is a coy understatement: they’ve recorded it and have taken to watching it several times a day. I’d never seen it before and I had no idea just how adult the dialogue is, not to mention the pelvic gestures.
Nicola, on the other hand, is taking it all in her stride, assuring me that she went to see it at the age of 6 with her grandmother and it all goes over your head at that age.
I suspect I’m just “being a dad” on this one. Do any readers have any Grease-related personal stories they can share which might calm my troubled mind?
I’ve seen Grease a million times, including very recently whenever it was on. I reckon most of the “adult” dialogue is said so quickly and with highly distracting costumes/haircuts/cars that you’ve not much to worry about.
The idea that a woman’s got to start smoking and wear trousers she needs to be sewn into, in order to get the man she wants, however, is far more disturbing!
I love your blog - have read it for ages - and I’ll de-lurk to set your mind at rest on this one. Nicola is quite right - it all goes over your head at that age. My sister and I went through the same Grease phase but we were a little older (about 14, I think!) and it even went over my head at that age. We too watched it umpteen times in the same day until we knew all the words, or thought we did. In retrospect, we only knew the words we could understand. The other bits must have been like some kind of white noise that got filtered out.
The part of the film we were least into was the Greased Lightning section, since that was “about cars” and therefore very uninteresting.
The thing which really sticks in my mind is that we were quite disappointed with the ending because we thought she looked “so much prettier” before the transformation. We liked her better with the straight blonde hair and the pastel skirts. Ah, the innocence…
I’ve been another lurker on this site for some time. I think fortunately that although children do pick up certain elements, the majority go way over their head. Grease does contain a lot of adult humour but in all fairness i’ve seen worse in my childrens playground.
PS. I like the blog, its something my wife and I check in on at least once a week since discovering it in early august. Keep up the good work.
Visit childsplayx2.com, my son he saw Grease in 1978 and he turned out to be a fine man. I don’t know what effect it has on the other gender.
Welcome to the debate of the century, Alan! To be honest, I make a big hoo-ha about this on the blog but in reality we’re very lucky: our girls are very well grounded and take most things in their stride(s). As for boys… well, on the one hand they seem to have a new boyfriend every week, which may sound alarming. On the other hand, they’re all very nice boys and being someone’s girlfriend at that age typically just involves lending them your pencil. I think all parents have exactly those feelings you’ve expressed, but we’ve never found a need to wrap them in cotton wool. Well, not too much.
LOL! Nice one, Saundrah, and welcome.