"It's a very telling thing when you have children. You have to be there for them, you've got to set an example, when you're not sure what your example is, and anyway the world is changing so fast you don't know what is appropriate anymore"
About this Quote
Parenthood, Annie Lennox suggests, is less a glow-up than an exposure: it reveals how flimsy our self-certainty can be. The line pivots on a quiet panic disguised as responsibility. Yes, you "have to be there" and "set an example" - the expected script. Then she yanks the floor out: you may not even know what your example is. That admission is the point. The job of modeling a life for someone else forces you to confront that your own life is partly improvisation, partly habit, partly inherited noise.
What makes it land is the rhythm of escalation. Each clause tightens the bind: be present, be exemplary, but also be coherent, and do it while culture accelerates past your ability to keep up. Lennox isn't romanticizing parenting; she's naming the modern condition where norms are in flux and every choice is potentially a statement. The subtext reads like a self-audit under fluorescent light: if you don't have a settled compass, your kid will still read you as one.
Coming from a musician whose career unfolded amid rapidly shifting ideas about gender, sexuality, fame, and work-life boundaries, the anxiety feels earned. Lennox came up in an era when public figures were becoming brands and private life was becoming content. In that context, "appropriate" isn't just manners; it's values, identity, survival tactics. The telling thing is that children don't let you opt out of the future. They demand you choose how to stand in it, even when you're not sure where the ground is.
What makes it land is the rhythm of escalation. Each clause tightens the bind: be present, be exemplary, but also be coherent, and do it while culture accelerates past your ability to keep up. Lennox isn't romanticizing parenting; she's naming the modern condition where norms are in flux and every choice is potentially a statement. The subtext reads like a self-audit under fluorescent light: if you don't have a settled compass, your kid will still read you as one.
Coming from a musician whose career unfolded amid rapidly shifting ideas about gender, sexuality, fame, and work-life boundaries, the anxiety feels earned. Lennox came up in an era when public figures were becoming brands and private life was becoming content. In that context, "appropriate" isn't just manners; it's values, identity, survival tactics. The telling thing is that children don't let you opt out of the future. They demand you choose how to stand in it, even when you're not sure where the ground is.
Quote Details
| Topic | Parenting |
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