DO YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN
(Words and Music by Rick Springfield)


Father do you love your children 
I heard you do 
But Father will you help your children 
We need you to 
It could be worse I know it's true 
But only if we plan 
La la la Lady Mary....It's time to show your hand 
La la la Lady Mary....And make a few demands
Children do you hope that someone 
Is watching you 
But do you feel the need for someone 
I know I do 
I think about it constantly 
We really aren't that wise 
La la la Lady Mary...Open up our eyes 
La la la Lady Mary....And make us realize
 
First I have a question  
I would like to know  
Do you love your children  
Do you love your children  
Yes we really need to know  
I think the time has come for you to show 

Mother, do you love your children 
I know you do 
But mother do you know your children 
Will poison you 
The answer does not seem too clear 
We look so hard ourselves 
La la la Lady Mary...Put your books back on the shelf 
La la la Lady Mary...And save us from ourselves

First I have a question  
I would like to know  
Do you love your children  
Do you love your children  
Yes we really need to know  
I think the time has come for you to show 

(total playing time: 6:03)

This song can be found on the Comic Book Heroes LP

According to US

Many of you who have read these reviews for a while have probably heard me express in other reviews the kind of home I grew up in. For those of you who haven't, the quick version is that there was alcohol involved, and a lot of late night fighting as well as people moving in and moving out. Sometimes my Dad left, sometimes my Mom packed us kids up and we went to Grandma's for a bit until the dust settled. Things never changed for years, however. It was always the same and my brothers and I were always waiting for "the monumental moment" something would happen and it would be over. For me, that moment meant high school graduation and I moved out. I finally took a stand on my own and told my parents I was fed up. I'm telling you this, because this song doesn't speak to me in a religious sense, although I can see the spirit in such thoughts drifting into it. Especially the mention of the Mother Mary...which I will get to in a bit. 

I've said before, I acquired this album while I was in high school -mid 80's, so I was still at home with my parents. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't always a sad place in my home - we still had some sense of normalcy about, and my parents were very good at appearing very Ozzie & Harriet like when forced to. However, when this song would finally roll thru on the album while I was listening, it would always strike a chord with me that I wanted them to hear it. Rick was saying what I felt was needing to be heard in my home, "Father will you help your children, we need you to". "Children do you hope that someone is watching you" -I hoped that eventually the neighbors would contact authorities. I felt guilty thinking those thoughts practically every day, but after a while the whole situation just wears you down, and you really don't care anymore that you wish for one of your parents to be locked away someplace. Even turning to the church, the Catholic church I might add...really didn't help matters anywhere. I believe that this is where my whole disillusion of that faith comes from. My brothers, mother and I attended Al-Anon meetings at that church. The priests and the nuns knew what was going on in my family, yet in front of the whole population of the church -would act the same as my parents. They all had the facade that everything was okay. The priest would tell me in those meetings to pray to Mary, and ask her to make my parents see what they were doing to their children. So, then I'd go home and crank the volume on this song, because there's my teen idol - the man that's taking the hurt away for me for a little bit every day, singing, "La La La Lady Mary, open up our eyes". Okay, so I had Rick doing my praying, maybe that's why it didn't work. :-)

Now, to the lines, "Mother do you love your children, I know you do. But Mother do you know your children will poison you" I kept hoping these lines would seep into my Mother's subconscious. There were many times I would plead with my Mother to just leave with us, and never come back. Or make HIM leave, for the good of our family. I could never understand why she stayed with him, how she could still love him. "Do you love your children, yes we really need to know, I think the time has come for you to show" This confusion turned into a type of hate throughout my teen years, and if I acted on that hate, I probably could have done some harm to my mother thinking maybe that would end the madness. I never did, but I'm not saying I didn't entertain those thoughts either. 

Moving on now, as I'm really starting to depress myself and I really don't like to dwell on this stuff much anymore, I've made my peace and granted my forgiveness...I've always liked the rhythm and beat in this song. It didn't sound so "70's" to me, and when asked I would tell Rick this would be a good song to remake. The message is still so appropriate even today, where you see on the news everyday parents hurting their children in someway. Leaving them in hot cars in the summer, or divorced parents kidnapping the children they do not have custody of. Lots of stories everyday, of children being harmed by the people who supposedly love them.  - Michelle P.