r/LyricInterpretations • u/[deleted] • Jul 28 '13

MGMT - Kids

You were a child

Crawling on your knees toward it

Making momma so proud

But your voice is too loud

We like to watch you laughing

You pick the insects off plants

No time to think of consequences

Control yourself

Take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanting to be haunted

Control yourself

Take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanting to be haunted

The water is warm

But it's sending me shivers

A baby is born

Crying out for attention

Memories fade

Like looking through a fogged mirror

Decisions too

Decisions are made and not bought

But I thought this wouldn't hurt a lot

I guess not

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u/intangiro Mar 31 '24

“Family of trees” is a family with kids. “Tree” is an individual with roots. When kids are still living with their parents, they have same habits, same style, same preferences, similar drives - they have the same roots. Then the kids grow and live the house. The family becomes “haunted” because they only have memories of their past. This applies both to the parents, which remember the time with kids, possibly insufficient or with regrets, evoked by the negativity of “haunted”; and to the kids that now live alone and have to deal with the struggles of adult life, with permanent awareness that their infancy is not coming back (again, a form of “haunting”). While they were a family with kids, they were sold the idea that life is good and they should go through it and become adults, which means the family “wanted” to eventually become haunted.

3

u/Premrose Jul 16 '24

Thank you

2

u/Even_Astronomer_888 Dec 03 '24

They don’t become haunted. They “want to be” haunted. Huge difference

2

u/Ainaemaet Jan 07 '25

Gotta' put money where mouth is. Care to share what you think it means?

2

u/Purple_Style_1072 Jan 16 '25

I think it means that the family wants to get rid of their children, as seen in the music video, where the mother doesn't seem to be caring that much about her kid

2

u/Ainaemaet Jan 18 '25

An interesting take for sure - definitely one of the wonderful things about music is how it can mean something so different depending on our own subjective view; I'll keep that in mind the next time I watch it - but I definitely do remember thinking the same thing about the Mom, she's really off in her own world!!

2

u/Bullydad101 Jan 01 '25

Great insight

2

u/Old-Runescape-PKer Jan 06 '25

wow this is exactly what i needed to read... thank you good sir

2

u/DeaderThanEzra Jan 23 '25 edited Jan 23 '25

I was thinking of this along a similar vein. Your take was thought provoking and insightful. To supplement, I was thinking of it as the Family Tree in people's lives that we are all a part of, as part of a small unit: Mom, Dad, siblings, close aunts, n uncles or as part of the Family Tree of our Humanity and the experiences that we all share as part of the much larger "human race family". As part of those families, there are disappointments but we have to take what "we need from it" in order to survive our immediate families and the larger human race family because they push us away, sometimes unwittingly, sometimes intentionally. We can't take all if it on lest we lose ourselves. So you take only what you need from it. Take the good if you can and I say "good" because that is where I think the author's headspace was in. And this is coming from a guy (me) who was in negative headspace for several decades until the last 3-5 years.

The family tree wanting to be haunted alludes to that we as a biological species are somewhat compelled to have offspring and that we have in our family tree, those who haunt it (those who passed away) and that we ourselves will one-day haunt. 🌴🌲🌴👻🌲🌴🌲🌴👻🌲🌴🌲🌴👻🌴🌲🌴👻🌲🌴🌲🌴👻🌲🌴🌴👻🌲

Edit: I have not seen the video which was one person's interpretation to sell a video, and albums, to make it controversial. The video is not the song as a movie is not the book. I'll watch the vid next.

1

u/Interesting-Buddy-15 Jan 25 '25

Always loved this song, and now it hits differently since my eldest has grown up 🤍