I was prepared for the talks about the birds and the bees. I was prepared for the talks about our changing bodies and puberty. I was not ready for a discussion about twerking. And apparently, a much needed discussion.

In case you are not familiar with it, twerking is a dance that involves rhythmic movement of a person’s hips, similar to movements that were once made popular by exotic dancers. If you need more of a visual, it’s okay to google the term…just be careful of what you just might see.

The two middle schoolers mentioned twerking and physical education class in the same sentence one day, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Twerking?!?! Surely that couldn’t be the same dance that my college students talk about…surely not. 

You see where I’m going with this.

Because it was the same dance…and when I asked them if they knew how to do it, they did. “Not because we do it Mom…we’ve just seen the other kids do it.” Right. And to believe that would also lend me to be a good candidate to believe I will find oil in my backyard and strike it rich. I’m just saying.

Y’all...my children know how to twerk.

So we had to have a little discussion. A discussion about our bodies and how we choose to showcase rhythmic movement. And that we should honor our bodies. I told them (with a straight face, I might add) that I do not twerk and they shouldn’t either. To me, twerking encourages the visualization of sexual images that are uncomfortable to have…especially as school. They looked confused. Sigh. So I reminded them that it’s no secret in our house that I am a fan of hip hop artist Ludacris. I sometimes even refer to him as my younger, richer, hip-hop boyfriend. I told them that thinking certain thoughts about Luda (my pet name for him) is perfectly fine for me, but if I am work and supposed to be helping my students, thinking about Luda is not appropriate because it is not the correct time nor the place.

School is not the appropriate time or place to be thinking about twerking. I personally don’t believe 11- and 12-year-olds should be thinking about twerking at all. AT ALL. I made that clear. Our house is a no twerking zone. But I know it happens….and people will twerk in front of them…even at school. So we needed to have that talk…and boy was it tough!

Did you know what twerking was prior to reading this?