Kids lyrics by MGMT, 16 meanings. Kids explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
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MGMT – Kids lyrics
You were a child
Crawling on your knees toward it
Making momma so proud,
But your voice was too loud


We like to watch you laughing,
You pick the insects of plants
No time to think of consequences

[Chorus:]
Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanted
To be haunted

[Chorus:]
Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanted
To be haunted


The water is warm
But it's sending me shivers
A baby is born
Crying out for attention


The memories fade
Like watching through a fogged mirror
Decision to decisions are made
And not bought
,
But I thought this wouldn''t hurt a lot.
I guess not

[Chorus:]
Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanted
To be haunted

[Chorus:]
Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanted
To be haunted
×



Lyrics taken from /lyrics/m/mgmt/kids.html

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Songwriters: Andrew Wells Vanwyngarden, Benjamin Nicholas Huner Goldwasser
Kids lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Submitted by SuperJ
Corrected by Lea Gundestrup

Kids meanings Post my meaning

  • v
    + 41
    vpham
    I think these lyrics are deeper than most of what you folks are saying. These are about how we start out innocent and fearless when we're young. As we get older, we learn about and reap consequences. We make decisions easily, not knowing of the consequences, not realizing how much the long-term consequences and effects will eventually hurt us in life. As we suffer the effects of our choices, we should learn to control ourselves -- our anger, our hurt -- to learn from our poor choices and mistakes, and to "take only what we need from it." Everything seems "warm" and innocent (baby) in the beginning, but that warm water gets colder as we get older. All we can do is learn as we get older because everything is "haunted" and grows more haunted. A baby born is destined to be haunted in this life.
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  • U
    + 11
    Unregistered
    I can't claim to know the artist's intent when writing this song, but it (and its official music video) hit me hard on a personal level. In the beginning when it says making mama so proud, it reminds me of how growing up my parents thought I was so amazing and special and encouraged me to be the best version of myself and taught me to stand up for what I believe in. But then the song says "but your voice was too loud," and that reminds me of where I am now: my beliefs don't match up with theirs, and now I'm wrong for standing up for myself. They want me to be quiet and just go with the status quo. In the video, a woman is seen walking around town carrying a baby, but she seems completely absorbed in her phone. The baby is looking around and sees that all the other people are scary monsters, and he's crying, but instead of comforting him, his mom puts him down and lets him crawl and walk around alone with the monsters. He eventually wanders into the woods where the band is playing, and they give him some stuff, like a little hat to wear, and he stops crying while he watches them play. Then his mom comes and picks him back up, takes the hat off, and puts him in his carseat (which looks like it has prison bars on each side of it) and drives away, leaving the baby to look out the window at more scary monsters. Eventually she turns on a TV in the backseat with some stupid cartoon stuff that's also kind of horrifying to look at. Basically, this song seems to be about someone who is left on their own in the world, vulnerable and afraid, ignored and isolated by the very person who should be protecting them. I can't watch the video without crying.
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  • U
    + 10
    Unregistered
    I’m scrolling through the various interpretations of this songs meaning and see that mine is the most abstract by far lol.
    From the almost the first time hearing the song it felt, to me like the song was being sung from the perspective of a creator, or some one observing humankind, the narrative speaking of mankind (kids) with all of our ideas and grand opinions “voice was too loud” and our inability to take care of the planet, “picking insects off plants, no time to think of consequences” and then “control yourself, take only what you need from it- a family of trees falling, to be haunted” and “the water is warm- but it’s sending me shivers” here I’m hearing our inability to maintain the natural balance of our planet, and inability our to use the planets resources sparingly so now as a result it’s causing global warming etc.
    MGMT has always written songs in a very poetic, obscure way and I think the song Kids is a perfect example of that. Nothing in the song, including it’s title is meant to be taken literally, or at face value. But if you step back and listen from a different perspective you can really hear the depths and meaning of their song writing.
    I would love to know of what everyone else thinks of my interpretation, or whether anyone out there knows the true meaning of the lyrics. Such a great song and an insanely talented duo!

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  • U
    + 8
    Unregistered
    I think that the artist is criticizing his parents for the lack of attention he got and eventually them ignoring him completely. it hurt but the memories fade and he ends up making similar mistakes with his child(ren). this is basically bringing about the whole idea that we are our parents and everything we never liked about them.
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  • r
    + 4
    romulofaco
    I guess this song is about growing up, and the pain the comes with it.
    The pain that comes with taking chances, making choices ("Decision to decisions are made / And not bought"), dealing with the other ppl's expectations of who you're supposed to be ("Making Momma so proud" "We like to watch you laughing"), feeling lonely ("a baby is born crying out for attention") even when you think you're in the warmest and most-friendly places, but you're not ("the water is warm, but it's sending me shivers"), speaking up your mind, even when nobody wants to hear it ("your voice is too loud"). Those conflicts are necessary for one's growth.
    Growing up is not easy indeed ("I thought this wouldn’t hurt a lot. I guess not"), and it does make you miss the times when you were a kid, picking "insects out of plants", with "no time to think of consequences", which now seems like such a long time ago ("the memories fade"). But just when you think all of this is just too much to bare, remember to keep your act together, control yourself, take only of you need of so much responsability and woe and learn from it. And, last but not least, don't forget to unwind a bit, go back to picking "insects out of plants" once in a while, revisit your primal state of mind, pay a tribute to your own nature, because, maybe just maybe, there are still "a family of trees" waiting for you to hunt them.
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  • U
    + 3
    Unregistered
    Plain and simple it’s about the bad stuff all around us as we grow up from infant to adult . Anything can happen and it’s about how we turn out in the end . Parents are supposed to guide us , our still blings our influences and our family . We all cry when bad things happen it’s how we cope and learn or fight to heal and the battle goes on but we don’t give up.
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  • a
    + 3
    Apuckett3
    When you're a kid you don't think about what you're doing, you just do it. You throw a ball, no thinking about how fragile windows are. When you get older you start to see your actions affect you and others. Your voice is too loud is showing someon older wishing that he or she was still younger and could share in the fun without feeling responsibility weighing on their shoulders. The water is warm but it's sending me shivers, meaning maybe it looks cool but they have already grown up and knows that it won't have good consequences. There is a point in everyone's life where you grow up. Some are forced to take responsibility because others won't and that makes them tough. Others grow up but are still children on the inside because life gave them an easy deal of cards. Either way we all mature.
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  • p
    + 3
    princessnubie
    I think ths song its about life and death, "u were a child , making ur momma so proud ! then u start to growing up "We like to watch you laughing,
    You pick the insects off plants
    No time to think of consequences = you don't think about what's going to happen you just enjoying ur days as a child.
    Take only what you need from it = I think he means take only what life gaves you.
    A family of trees wanted To be haunted = we going to die anyway and at the end of the day we only going to haunted our own family tree (like our great-grandparents. The memories fade
    Like looking through a fogged mirror = life's is nothing, we all going to be forgotten and our memories will disapear and become fade.
    Sorry I may have made some mistake in english, I speak french!
    Add your reply
  • s
    + 3
    scmnorcal
    We are crawling on our knees to get what we want which makes mother proud to see us succeed, but our wants and goals are decisions based on decisions, not decisions based on the archetypal constant thoughout human experience that guides us collectively. We are moving away from our connection with eachother. Our intereaction used to be tribal and based on us. Now they have become based on media/materials that are not neccesary but self indulgent leisure or power. I like to think that the trees wanting to be haunted is the opportunity to become so old that they will become haunted, instead of loud babies(us) harvesting more than we need before some of the oldest living things on earth have a chance to become haunted. Maybe the water is warm but it is toxic and causing him to shiver. The memories fade because with every passing generation our detachment from our Mother Earth becomes more normal and our increasingly toxic environment is becoming normal. When compared with something bad, something a little worse is not horrible, but to compare where we are now to where we were before the industrial revolution would shock the frog out of the slowly heated water before it boils.
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  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered
    Seems to me it's less about children and more about life in general in the context of the modern world. The journey from child to adulthood and accepting the diffuculties of living with the descisions you've made in a way you never do as a child; including the descisions the older generation made about the environment and it's ramifications for the next. Meanwhile, the straightfoward good advice of the chorus echoes as the song (and life) goes on.
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  • d
    + 1
    disappointed
    I met a girl a while back that would always play this song on the jukebox, she really loves it, I kind of like it myself. Though I don't think she interprets it like I do or she wouldn't like it most likely. Anyway one night she was in a bad way and told me about her best friend that had died from using heroine a year earlier and how her sister had a baby the same day. For some reason I've thought about this song ever since and I can't get it and the heroine story out of my mind, it seems coincidental. I held her hand for two hours as she got through it, I never seen her again. Hope she's ok!
    Add your reply
  • U
    0
    Unregistered
    Think ths song its about life and death, "u were a child , making ur momma so proud ! Then u start to growing up "we like to watch you laughing,
    you pick the insects off plants
    no time to think of consequences = you don't think about what's going to happen you just enjoying ur days as a child. Take only what you need from it = I think he means take only what life gaves you. A family of trees wanted to be haunted = we going to die anyway and at the end of the day we only going to haunted our own family tree (like our great-grandparents. The memories fade
    like looking through a fogged mirror = life's is nothing, we all going to be forgotten and our memories will disa.
    Add your reply
  • t
    0
    tiiituuu
    I think, this song is trying to tell us that everything is everything. Little things matters "We like to watch you laughing,
    You pick the insects off plants, No time to think of consequences". So things you did when you were little and everyone (and u) were thinkin that it's ok. But you are maybe kind of doing those things still another way and it's not funny anymore. You know, exhaust, cigarette, water pollution etc. Sorry for my bad english:/
    Add your reply
  • s
    0
    scmnorcal
    Liyn, How is taking only what you need different from saving the Earth? Too many people think benevolent actions will save the world. Maybe It's the absence of malevolent actions that is needed; but its easy to be a "hero" for doing something. It is much more difficult and more effective to abstain from actions that are toxic to this existance. And couldn't this be one of life's most important lessons? Greed can be placed near the top of the list of sins. Wait, it is. Greed, one of the 7 deadly sins. Our greed may destroy the world. Can you see the connection now?
    Add your reply
  • U
    - 1
    Unregistered
    This song is related to what's going on in our world and will soon be exposed fully in 2019. Child trafficking, pedofilia, pizza gate, adrenochrome obtained by terrorizing the children then killing them and eating their flesh and drinking their blood for the high, Disney grooming children for MK ULTRA. Parents selling their children and selling their souls.
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  • U
    - 1
    Unregistered
    What I took into consideration of these lyrics is that when the world is falling apart, and mom and dad are wanting the best for you, they're focusing on your happiness rather than scaring you with what's happening all over the world. This child is content due to the presence of both of his parents making him laugh, so that when he grows up and looks back to this very moment; he'll see how happy he use to be, how the world was perfectly at ease referring to the fact that his parents gave him no sign or note that the world is being destroyed by the generation of kids and the decisions and choices that were previously being made. When we make wrong decisions thinking they're right decisions, we don't tend to notice how they're affecting those around us; like family or friends for example. The choices we make affect not only those around us, but also the population of people and the destruction of the next generation that will eventually set foot in this earth like we have. The more destruction we make, and the wrong decisions we make for ourselves are killing the earth and possessing people to do such inadequate things. Eventually, if everyone keeps doing harm, the world's going to end with more tragic and unfortunate events that have already took place.
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    Top meanings Post my meaning

    • v
      + 41
      vpham
      I think these lyrics are deeper than most of what you folks are saying. These are about how we... Read more →
    • U
      + 11
      Unregistered
      I can't claim to know the artist's intent when writing this song, but it (and its official music... Read more →

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