I'm torn. In one way I can see what Desaparecida is saying, though I have another idea. That the babysitter, though liberal, loved being innocent and babysitting with children. Her boyfriend wants her to go to college, to become one of the liberal free women that aren't little housewives. Though she really wants that old style wife's life she is so swept up by the woman's movement that she does what is supposed to be right and chooses freedom even though she still wants a family life instead.
I think you've got it turned around. Tom doesn't want her to go to college--if she chooses school, he won't marry her. She asks Dar/the child not to "go with a guy who will make you choose", which suggests that the babysitter wants both school and Tom/marriage. Tom is the obstacle.
I think you've got it turned around. Tom doesn't want her to go to college--if she chooses school, he won't marry her. She asks Dar/the child not to "go with a guy who will make you choose", which suggests that the babysitter wants both school and Tom/marriage. Tom is the obstacle.
For me, there are two ways of seeing this song, and both are interesting although one is less universal than the other.
For me, there are two ways of seeing this song, and both are interesting although one is less universal than the other.
One: Choices in relationships, and what love means. If Tom loved her, he would encourage her to go to school and not...
One: Choices in relationships, and what love means. If Tom loved her, he would encourage her to go to school and not force a choice between "love" and education/self-improvement. This would be an easy decision for me--I'd tell Tom to stuff it--but I'm 20 years older than the babysitter and decisions like this seem less dire when you're well into your thirties in the 2010's than they must have when you were a young girl in the early 1970's.
Two: Women in the "liberated" 1970's. For all the talk of love and freedom and equality, the hippie movement often didn't do very well by minorities and women. Tom is at least a wannabe radical who wears a flag on his pants, but he still expects his girlfriend to do as he says and give up her own aspirations for him.
I always like this song much better than I expect to. It seems as if it will be a cutesy song about a kid and her favorite babysitter, but then it gets complex and kind of dark, but without becoming pretentious. The lyrics are amazingly economical: It tells the listener a lot with only a few words.
I'm torn. In one way I can see what Desaparecida is saying, though I have another idea. That the babysitter, though liberal, loved being innocent and babysitting with children. Her boyfriend wants her to go to college, to become one of the liberal free women that aren't little housewives. Though she really wants that old style wife's life she is so swept up by the woman's movement that she does what is supposed to be right and chooses freedom even though she still wants a family life instead.
I think you've got it turned around. Tom doesn't want her to go to college--if she chooses school, he won't marry her. She asks Dar/the child not to "go with a guy who will make you choose", which suggests that the babysitter wants both school and Tom/marriage. Tom is the obstacle.
I think you've got it turned around. Tom doesn't want her to go to college--if she chooses school, he won't marry her. She asks Dar/the child not to "go with a guy who will make you choose", which suggests that the babysitter wants both school and Tom/marriage. Tom is the obstacle.
For me, there are two ways of seeing this song, and both are interesting although one is less universal than the other.
For me, there are two ways of seeing this song, and both are interesting although one is less universal than the other.
One: Choices in relationships, and what love means. If Tom loved her, he would encourage her to go to school and not...
One: Choices in relationships, and what love means. If Tom loved her, he would encourage her to go to school and not force a choice between "love" and education/self-improvement. This would be an easy decision for me--I'd tell Tom to stuff it--but I'm 20 years older than the babysitter and decisions like this seem less dire when you're well into your thirties in the 2010's than they must have when you were a young girl in the early 1970's.
Two: Women in the "liberated" 1970's. For all the talk of love and freedom and equality, the hippie movement often didn't do very well by minorities and women. Tom is at least a wannabe radical who wears a flag on his pants, but he still expects his girlfriend to do as he says and give up her own aspirations for him.
I always like this song much better than I expect to. It seems as if it will be a cutesy song about a kid and her favorite babysitter, but then it gets complex and kind of dark, but without becoming pretentious. The lyrics are amazingly economical: It tells the listener a lot with only a few words.