February 25, 2020

If your kids are on TikTok, you’ve probably seen them doing a new dance around the house: The Renegade. Made viral by a 14 year old girl, Jalaiah Harmon,, it’s become the new dance craze of 2020.

When my kids were at school, I was watching Ellen clips on YouTube and Jalaiah came on her show to perform the Renegade dance. It was fast, but I thought, I could learn it.

Thanks to a Google search, I found a bunch of tutorials and was on my way. This wasn’t your normal TikTok video that comes and goes. I could tell this dance is going to be around for awhile. It’s one of those moves that you’ll need to learn for weddings, parties and any huge event.

Learning The Renegade took me back to the days of the Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle. Granted, these moves are much slower and anyone can do it. I’m determined to be able to get out on a dance floor and show those tweens what I’ve got.

Breaking down these moves wasn’t all about learning the dance, but more about sharing an interest with my kids. When I told my 12-year-old I was learning the renegade she got so excited. She had to tape me and send it to all her friends. I was not expecting that…

This led in to multiple discussions about other things like slang words these kids use today. Okay, that sentence just made me sound like an old grandma.

It’s true, there are words my kids say and I have no idea what they are talking about. My daughter searched up common slang words and had me go through the list to see what I knew. Turns out, after giving me examples and quizzing me, I hovered around the 50% mark.

Most of the words were derivations of regular words, so they were easy to comprehend. But some, I still ask her how to properly use them in a sentence.

Learning The Renegade was fun, but more importantly, it open up a new line of communication with my kids. Now, I’m no hip-hop dancer but when Lottery comes on, I can break it down.

What popular things have you learned about so you can converse with your children?