Pink Pony Club is a song about discovering where you belong.

Pink Pony Club is a song about discovering where you belong.
It's also my favorite cautionary tale for parents.

We're all on a quest to find "our people". Groups and places where we can be ourselves, feel understood, and don't have to hide. Along the way, stories accumulate in our head. Stories of acceptance and stories of rejection, each with a voice.

In the song, the voice of rejection was the artist's own parent.

This sums up parenting in a nutshell. We don't get to choose who our kids become. Through thousands of interactions, we shape the version of us they'll carry with them. Eventually, that version is distilled into a voice of acceptance or rejection.

James Earl Jones gave us an iconic version of each:
- Mufasa: "Remember who you are"
- Darth Vader: "Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy"

One supports the child in becoming himself.
The other asks the child to become an extension of the parent.

We don't choose where our children find belonging or who they become when they get there. But we do cast ourselves in their story: supporting actor or an antagonist they must overcome.