Judge: Taking Girl to Pink Concert Not Bad Parenting

Ruling: Mom's move didn't damage 11-year-old
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 25, 2015 3:46 PM CDT
Judge: Taking Girl to Pink Concert Not Bad Parenting
In this photo made available May 2, 2013, US singer Pink performs on stage during a concert in Hamburg, Germany, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Pink opened her tour of Germany 'The Truth About Love'.   (AP Photo/dpa, Axel Heimken)

Taking a preteen to a Pink concert does not make you a bad mother. That's the upshot of Judge Lawrence R. Jones' ruling. The case decided in New Jersey family court centered around a Dec. 11, 2013, concert that a mother (all parties identified by pseudonyms) attended with her then-11-year-old, "AZ". The girl's parents are divorced and were battling over physical custody, and the father viewed the mother's actions as age-inappropriate and an abuse of parental discretion, reports NJ.com. Jones didn't agree. In a 37-page opinion posted online Thursday, the Ocean County Superior Court judge put it plainly: "All which happened here is that a young girl went to her first rock concert with her mother and had a really great time."

New Jersey Law Journal reports the girl’s father argued that due to the profanities in her songs and sexual dance routines (he quoted a Hollywood Reporter review of the show that referenced three male dancers "molesting" the singer), an 11-year-old shouldn't have attended. But Jones didn't find AZ's "health, safety, or welfare" put in jeopardy by the move. NJ.com reports that he did speak with the child, and his opinion pointed out that the girl did think "there was one 'bad' song (ie, an adult song)" during the concert—so she put her headphones on and "did not listen to the words." The decision goes on to cite Elvis Presley, Gone With the Wind, Pink's own lyrics, and The Merchant of Venice ("it is a wise parent who knows his or her own child"). A footnote adds that the parents subsequently settled their custody dispute, with them sharing joint custody of AZ and her two brothers. (More strange stuff stories.)

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