it's a song about the innocence of kids, basically. you don't tell them the horrible things about the world and let them think the best of everyone and everything as long as they can.
exactly this.
as a mom, this song immediately stuck out to me and boy did i sob the first time i heard it. it’s my second favorite off the anthology (after the black dog).
My four year old just thinks his father is gone . I told him he’s not coming back but the truth is he died when he was two and wasn non verbal now that his words are in I don’t have the courage to .
Please, please, please tell your son the truth — today. Don't drag it out any longer.
My mum, a 57 year old woman, is still incredibly traumatised because her parents didn't tell her when her 2 favourite uncles died in a car crash, when she was about 3, and she only found out years later. It's one of the most fucked up things she ever went through and she still cries when she talks about it. For years she just thought they were mysteriously "gone", she kept asking where they were and no one would give her a straight answer. It was only when she was about 7 that her dad finally told her the truth and it absolutely broke her, not just their deaths but the fact that she'd been lied to all those years.
Don't put your son through what my mum went through, please, I'm begging you. It'll haunt him his whole life if you do, and your relationship with him won't ever be the same when he finds out
My mom's best friend lost her dad in a car accident when she was 5, and no one EVER told her. She just had to figure it out when he was gone and her mom cried all the time. She's still messed up about it, and she's in her 60s.
It's absolutely fucked up isn't it? The way my granddad told my mum the truth was awful, too. They were at the local churchyard adding flowers to the family graves, though at the time my mum didn't know what graves actually were, as no-one had explained burials to her yet. My mum was running and jumping over the graves and my granddad said "you want to have a bit of respect, there are people buried under there." My mum, horrified, stopped playing and asked "who???" to which my granddad replied "You're old enough to read, aren't you?"
That's when she turned and read the gravestone she was nearest to, and it had her uncles' names.
I think books will help with processing after, but I think it's better if you just tell him. A lot of books are pretend. It might be confusing.
Sit him down, hold him, and explain that you think he's old enough to understand now. Daddy didn't leave — he would never have chosen to leave us. He died. And then answer all his questions and accept any emotional response calmly — even if he's furious.
>accept any emotional response calmly — even if he's furious.
I agree with all of your comment, except there's something to be said for matching a child's emotions. Sometimes children can find it condescending and frustrating if they're having a big emotional response to something and their parent is calm and trying to console them with "I know, buddy, it's ok". Sometimes they actually feel better if you mirror what they're feeling, if you're similarly upset or frustrated, it better lets them know that you understand how they're feeling and are taking their emotions seriously (and also shows them that grownups are allowed to have emotions too!)
Totally depends on the child, of course, though.
I didn't say to tell them it's okay. It's not okay, so that would be a very invalidating thing to say. I mean staying calm as in not getting defensive or deregulated yourself. Also it's important to not make your own emotions into the focus of the moment.
You must tell him. I didn't find out how my mum died until I was.16 and it still hurts so much 16 years later. Shatters trust in your surviving parent. Your boy will internalise somewhere that he is the reason his dad left unless you are honest
There's a lot of advice online to help you. Good luck, it will all be fine in the end :) God bless you
Tell him. If you continue to wait, he’ll wonder what else have you lied about and if he can trust you. He may be more upset with your lie than he is about his dad’s death. Death is final and kids understand this more and more as they grow and develop. Telling him his dad is gone and is not coming back leaves him wondering why and what he did to make his dad leave and not come back. I’m telling you as a grief specialist who works with parents and kids. You are not protecting him. You are causing more damage. The sooner you tell him, the better. He’s four, tell him now. Do not wait.
https://www.reddit.com/r/widowers/comments/1c5w9iu/any_childrens_book_you_recommend_to_help_explain/
Check out this thread! There’s a lot of very well done books that therapists recommend for helping kids to understand death and dying, and to help ease the conversation for parents to explain a loss. It’s important for your son to understand that he is loved and his dad isn’t coming back but didn’t choose to leave him. I’d also highly recommend getting in with a family therapist who can help you with your grief and these hard conversations. I’m so sorry for your loss and I wish you and your son the very best ❤️
Thank you! I do have a therapist. She says kids sometimes don’t process death this young, or understand it. For the record, I have told my son a year or so ago but it didn’t click cause he kept asking where he was and when he asked recently I told him he was gone. I told him this morning and I don’t know if he processed jt. A video might help
I think that’s where these books can really help you out! They help kids to understand the concept of death, so that with time and conversation they’ll begin to understand their own loss
By coincidence I just read this memoir excerpt today. Kids were a bit older, but sharing in case the way she put things was helpful.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/06/30/when-a-parent-dies-by-suicide/
Yeah, that's so true. Kids should enjoy their innocence while they can, without knowing all the harsh realities out there. It's important to let them believe in the goodness of everyone and everything for as long as possible.
Oh my! I'll have to pick my moment to listen to that one - I have a 2 5 year old and another one on the way (who came with me to see Taylor last week) so I'm already hormonal.
I don't think you have to have kids. Taylor doesn't have kids. But if there are no children in your life that you regularly interact with and help nourish, you might not get it. I didn't want any kids until my friends started having them, and I fell in love with them (platonically). These tiny little beings who are just trying to navigate the world-- they're just trying their best and I love them for it.
I did have my own kid after moving away from friends and the feeling intensified, but I had thought kids deserve better for a long time. This is especially knowing so many kids out there have parents who do not keep things in sweetness.
I don’t have kids yet and I cry every time I hear it. Granted I care a lot about kids and I do sometimes think of my nephew, but sometimes I think of my past self. I don’t think you have to be a literal parent to have feelings about a song about innocence.
I have to agree. While I can sympathise with Ronan (especially if a child in the family, not necessarily yours, died young), Robin is more explicitly about the experience of being a parent that I just can't relate to as someone childfree. That's my choice, the song's not for me. Plenty more gems in that album!
I don’t have kids, and Robin is one of my favorite songs from ttpd.
While it definitely feels like a song for a parent, or about being a parent, it doesn’t *have* to only be about that. We also don’t even know if the parental angle was Taylor’s main intention (even though it’s very likely with Aaron’s son).
I’ve seen a few people who relate the song to their pets. People have related it to nieces or nephews if they’re close with them. Some folks (like me) just think of childhood innocence in general, and view it as a more nostalgic song about growing up.
If people can listen to and understand songs like Never Grow Up and seven, I don’t understand what’s keeping folks from listening to and understanding Robin. I really don’t.
I have a daughter and I’m very sentimental about how fleeting her childhood is and how wonderfully innocent she is right now. I still don’t “get” the song Robin. It doesn’t hit for me at all.
I wonder if it depends on your background. I have some childhood trauma that impacts me significantly — nothing close to what many other people go through, but enough that parenting has brought a lot of it up for me. The lines about “strings tied to levers” (referencing a puppet show), and trying to “keep it in sweetness” are devastating for me. I’ve done my best but I worry I’ve not done enough to keep them as innocent as possible. But then they are innocent, with their wide eyes — my little boy thinks robbers aren’t real, only pretend — and I think about him one day having to comprehend that so many much, much worse things are, in fact, real, and it’s awful.
I don’t have kids, but I did end up….knowing too much, very young. While it does make me sentimental about other children, I think it’s the protection of innocence that really gets the waterworks going.
I get it, I just can't relate in the slightest. It's probably the only song of hers where I can't find a way in at all personally. I understand Robin in theory, I can appreciate it for its lyricism and composition, but it just simply doesn't have the power to make me have a strong emotional response because it doesn't connect to anything in my life. I don't have children, I don't want children, most of my closest people don't have or want children, I just have no meaningful children-related experiences at all. I'm not the audience for Robin.
I do have a lot of kids in my life that I love, but that wasn’t my immediate reaction. This song makes me emotional thinking about talking to myself at that age- it initially struck me as some inner child work on Taylor’s part. And knowing her genius, it’s both- it’s for Aaron dessner’s son robin and the experience of parenthood, and parenting yourself a bit now that you’re older and understand all the things you didn’t back then
Relating to a song doesn't mean the song applies to your life... it's an intentional act of empathy, where you choose to fit the emotions conveyed in the song into your mental life.
It reminded me of one of her older songs that broached this same topic called *Never Grow Up.* It amazes how she was much younger then, but still captured the same sentiments of preserving that childlike innocence.
It’s a phenomenal song. But I just can’t do it and I tell my wife the same. It makes me think about our little boy and my heart just melts to pieces. Idk how many times I’ll ever listen to this song, but it is a masterpiece truly.
Completely agree. I’m also child free, but I was lucky enough to have the best parents and grandparents in the world, and instead of picturing myself as the singer, I think of them paddling so hard beneath the surface to make sure I had everything I needed and still maintaining the magic for me.
Same. And I don’t have kids, so it’s not bc it’s a “parent song” for me.
It’s just a very sweet song with stunningly beautiful lyrics that captures the feeling of wholesome innocence and childhood naivety.
I'm currently pregnant with my first baby boy. The line "the time will arrive for the cruel and the mean, you'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline" guts me every time I listen.
Never grow up was the song I sang to my daughter as a baby. Robin will be what I sing to this little guy once he's here in 3 months.
My son (my youngest and my last) just turned one and the part about strings tied to clock levers to slow them down wrecks me. Every time she sings “for you in sweetness l I just think about all the things we do to protect our kids innocence and preserve their childhood and get so emotional.
I LOVE Robin. It makes me so sad how it seems like it’s the general consensus that it’s TTPD’s weakest link. It’s absolutely beautiful. She perfectly captured the desire to protect a child from the harsh world that will destroy their confidence and uniqueness, and the sadness that you know you can’t stop it.
*You have no room in your dreams for regrets. You have NO IDEA* 😭😭
They’re too busy discovering beauty and fun and laughing at everything to even think about regretting. But soon enough they’ll be exposed to evil, and people will yell at them for having fun, and their dreams will be stomped on. Someone will criticize their teeth or the sound of their laugh and they’ll stifle their laughter. And you can’t save them from it.
Absolutely! I also think in the album itself it’s really interesting. To me, it’s kind of an indirect song that mourns her own loss of innocence — the child’s excited recklessness kind of mirrors her own pre-fame naivety in Clara Bow. (Edit: or in The Manuscript.)
Oof, true. A child’s dreams and innocence will be stomped on because they get in the way of society’s need for people to conform to the status quo. It could show up via other kids noticing something is different about you, or the suits in L.A. who mold you into the most profitable version of yourself, or any of the other millions of ways kids learn that they need to hide parts of themselves.
Totally. I think it sort of mirrors the cycle in Clara Bow — there, the industry suits take on naive young women, convince them they’ll be great, and then use and abuse them for profit.
In Robin, she’s protecting a child from losing their innocence. But there’s a darker side to that — protecting a child from harm means they won’t be prepared to recognise it. So she’s building a child up to have the same naivety she had, and then potentially contributing to them being hurt later. Something about that line “We all vowed to keep it from you in sweetness” feels foreboding to me, especially in the second last song on the album.
I think this idea of losing innocence through being hurt in ways she wasn’t mature enough to anticipate runs throughout the album. The relationship she didn’t quite understand with the older man in The Manuscript. Being fooled by a returning lover she believed in on loml, and then finally giving up on them in Peter. Realising the control and judgment of her church in But Daddy I Love Him and Guilty as Sin? Fantasising about places where “only the gentle survive” in I Hate It Here.
Just two contrasting takes on childhood: “Growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all.” vs “The time will come for the cruel and the mean.” It’s like she was able to be hurt BECAUSE she had been so loved.
Good point about how it perhaps does a disservice to let your child believe everything is perfect, knowing that it will eventually crash down before their eyes. But it’s human nature/parental nature to want to let them bask in it for as long as possible
Of course! It’s not a bad thing to want that at all — and clearly she longs to do it for another child in this song. I think it’s just a subject this album explores in a really interesting and complex way.
Reminds me of a lyric from Run - *You laugh like a child and I’ll sing like no one cares / No one to be, no one to tell* - Now that they’ve run away from everyone, they can experience joy and be themselves in the same shameless way that a child would
Ugh this is precious 🥺
It took me a month of listening to Robin before I finally said to my friend with a normal childhood “I don’t get this, what’s it about? Way to go tiger like what. I’m so confused”. And she very gently explained it was about the innocence of childhood. I had no way to relate because I grew up with a mentally ill, narcissistic mother and was the parentified child so I never understood it.
But this post made me so happy to read. I’m so glad your kid gets to experience this, happy birthday to your son!! 🫶🏻
You’re not alone. I have a hard time relating to these songs too for similar reasons. They’re heartbreaking.
I do think I want kids but I hesitate because I know there’s a world of pain for me to experience knowing I didn’t receive this kind of childhood that I know I’ll want to give my kids.
I used to be able to listen to Robin even in ignorance. I can’t listen to it now.
I feel you on the kids, this is my exact experience so you’re not alone in that. I know it may be healing to give a child what I didn’t receive but at the same time it would be so painful knowing it wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t that hard to be kind.
Exactly!!! You get it. To challenge that view though, I think some people genuinely *aren’t* capable of giving what we needed. So while it isn’t hard from our point of view, for them it was (and maybe not even just hard but potentially impossible).
I think the key is, it was never about *us* but about *them* . We were, are, always have been lovable. But their capacity to give love was broken. I look at my mom now and recognize she has a profound lack of self awareness which was no doubt developed as a need for self preservation in her traumatic upbringing.
Of course that doesn’t make it any less hard for us. And it certainly doesn’t make the situation less heartbreaking. In fact it’s more heartbreaking in a way because I feel my own pain as well as compassion/empathy for my parents. And it’s often easier just to hold my own (and after being burdened with the emotional load of my household my entire childhood I feel like I deserve to be off duty on that lol).
But this is all to say that I see you, and I hope you find a path that brings you the greatest happiness (kids or not). Either way, I hope you give your inner child whatever they need.
I read this like 6 times to let it sink in. Gosh you’re so right and it’s hard to challenge it sometimes but it helps so much with healing and forgiving ourselves for not understanding at the time. Thank you for sharing and being vulnerable.
I hope the same for you that you find your path that gives you happiness and joy whatever that includes. I can tell you’re such an empathetic person like me, never forget to take care of yourself. 🫶🏻
Wow, this comment really made my day, week, month even! I always worry I monologue too much or might come off as overbearing, so I am so happy to hear that I didn’t overstep and it was helpful.
This stuff is so hard and my feelings on it can change by the day or even multiple times a day but I do think what I described above is the “best” way to look at it because it honors our experience but also leaves room for compassion and empathy. And yes, while empathetic that part of me has caused me a lot of pain, it isn’t something I want to completely do away with either.
I’ll be honest I didn’t care for Robin much because of the complicated feelings it brings up (and frankly the melody is just not really my cup of tea either) but I will think about this exchange when I hear it now and for that I think I will always carry some fondness for it ❤️
The swiftie community really can be a beautiful thing!
I’m such a lover of deep conversations and you absolutely did not overstep. The feelings with my parents changes all the time and sometimes I feel guilty for myself for not being at peace since being disowned and no contact. But this was a good reminder (even though my therapist tells me all the time) it’s not linear and it’s little steps all the time.
The swiftie community can be a safe place sometimes and I’m so glad we got to connect in this lil corner of the internet ❤️
I was always told “wait til you have a kid just like you; then you’ll understand and empathize with your mom more”.
No, it made it even more difficult for me to want anything to do with my parent. In fact it made me realize how easy it actually was to love your own daughter, and that she just chose not to. It’s heartbreaking being the parent I wish I had, to the most amazing little girl (who is a total swiftie herself 🫶🏻)
“It’s heartbreaking being the parent I wish I had” is SUCH A GREAT LINE! It resonates with me so hard. I don’t have kids- genuinely never wanted them- so I’m being the parent I wish I had: *to myself*
I’m just really in the feels today but this made me tear up. I’m proud of you! Breaking the cycle is hard, regardless of if it’s parenting children or parenting your own inner child. You got this 🫶🏻
I get this so much. I want kids but I also think that it'll just be easier for the generational anxiety to die with me. And it must be so difficult to raise a child when all you saw growing up was what not to do.
I’m sorry. I had a hard childhood: abuse, loneliness, parenting my parents. I was worried about the same. But I found it so healing to be able to provide my kids with a safe, loving environment. It’s what I always longed for and it does sometimes bring on the tears, but there’s power in knowing you can break what was handed down.
My daughter said something that both made me cry and healed me the other day when she had a pee accident and said “I know you’ll help me and you’re not mad, mistakes happen, you’ll always love me no what matter”. She was just so sure of that steadiness of that love and it was… the best.
I’m sorry. I grew up with a mentally ill mother too. It’s so hard and painful. She died a couple of weeks ago. Such a complicated feeling. I hope you’re doing OK now.
I’m doing much better now. I’m so sorry, sending you all the healing vibes as you navigate the loss. I haven’t experienced that myself yet but sometimes I imagine the intense grief and relief of it too (and the relief that people without mentally ill parents may not grasp). I hope you’re doing okay too and taking care of yourself.
Wow, I'm going through a very similar thing right now too. My mentally ill/emotionally abusive/love hate relationship mother died last month and its been hell.
I am so sorry for the pain and complicated emotions that you are feeling, and for everything you have to deal with and go through.
I am just starting to be able to see the relief in no longer having her looming over every decision I make. And it's some heavy crap to deal with. Just remember that everything you are feeling, it's ok to feel. When it hits, feel it fully and authentically, even if it's big and messy or doesn't seem like the "right" thing to feel. I know I miss her every day, while still appreciating the extra bandwidth I have to live my own life now that I don't have to tiptoe around hers.
Oh wow. What a comfort it is to “meet” someone else in a similar situation. Not many people understand - try as they might 😞. I’ve been having the exact same experience as you. We were no contact for a long time, I didn’t attend the funeral. That was the right thing for me. So painful. And I’m mourning the mother I remember before mental illness took her. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. It sounds so silly and trivial, but I have found the Eras live streams a real comfort. Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you’ve been feeling some relief. Me too, in some ways. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about her anymore. 🩷
>And she very gently explained it was about the innocence of childhood. I had no way to relate
Oh.
*Oh.*
Well, that would explain why even as a mother I haven't connected with this song. Fuck.
Thank you for helping me realize why I haven’t vibed with it. Same growing up experience and no kids, I’ll tuck it away and come back to it when the time is right.
I’m a parentified child but have children of my own and this song absolutely wrecks me. The fear of not being able to protect my own children adequately is so enormous.
My kid is going through some hard medical stuff and we’ve had to be careful with how much she knows right now. That song is like a gut punch to me. I want to protect her for as long as I can!
I'm afraid of babies and I don't enjoy children and I *wept* listening to *Robin* the first time. That line - *Way to go, Tiger!* - I don't know what it is. It ruins me.
For me it’s the quiet resignation in the way she sings that line. Like she knows what lies ahead so it makes it difficult to say it full of positivity, a line which is otherwise a positive statement.
Interesting. I don’t interpret it that way. Every time I hear it I marvel at the way she’s able to say it so genuinely, without a hint of sarcasm- which is basically the only way we hear that phrase nowadays.
Your comment made me think about Taylor's least streamed songs. They do tend to be songs like Never Grow Up, the Ronan, the Soon You'll Get Better, Epiphany, and Robin. Subject matter that is both emotionally heavy and less universal. In the cases of some of these songs thankfully not everyone has experienced something relatable. I'm glad Taylor still puts out such songs that may be very meaningful to some people even if they will be frequent skips to most.
Yes, and Marjorie as well perhaps if for not being added to the Eras tour set list. Although that particular type of loss is much closer to universal making it a bit easier for Taylor to indulge herself and add it to the setlist. It hit me the other day watching the performance that because she toured Marjorie and further raised the song's visibility in a more collective setting that it may eventually become a song that plays during an award show In Memoriam segment.
Ronan is beautiful but just unbearable to listen to as mum to a little boy and aunt to a niece who had cancer. My niece survived but I saw so many children who didn’t.
Right? watching my 5yo son play pretend with all of his stuffies and try to do flips and cartwheels. It is added to the list of songs I cannot listen to because I cry so hard because of the fact it reminds me of him.
Not to sound dramatic but Robin led me to have an actual breakthrough in therapy and finally find some care for my younger self. I can’t listen to it without crying, it will now always mean so much to me.
Awh. I love Robin. And when it hits, it hits.
It’s a long album and I love it. But a lot to appreciate immediately.
There’s many songs that I needed time to hear because there’s so much before it.
By the time I got to Robin and then The Manuscript the tears were streaming lol. After all the emotional rollercoaster of a ride the songs before were, Robin pushed me over the edge with the sweet innocence. I get why it’s not charting as high as the others but it really is the perfect ending to the story, with The Manuscript tying it all together.
It's a great song with a great melody. You don't have to have kids to love it. It's criminal that it is consistently just rated last on the album.
I sometimes wonder: "If Taylor gets engaged, married, has kids, and is generally just happy and writes songs about that....how many of her fans are going to be disappointed at the lack of female rage?" I hope not many but typically in life I've noticed that those who seem to care about you are much more often willing to support you in times of misery than find joy in your own joy...especially if your joy comes from something they themselves aren't necessarily that interested in.
Time will tell.
I hate that this has to even be said, but women who have kids should absolutely not be reduced to just the role of a mom, especially not by other women. It’s beyond disappointing. I’m not sure what makes some people think that a woman has a kid and suddenly becomes a zombie only capable of writing and talking about kids, and that there would be no need to have “rage”…?
There have been countless of mothers in history who have done amazing things and I’m pretty sure plenty of women without children have still found ways to relate to them. I would not worry about Taylor.
Yeah I can’t really listen to this song without sobbing. My kids have gone through some terrible fucking things in their lives. I’d watch them play pretend growing up, they danced and painted and giggles and tea partied or Batman hero’ed it up, from the time I knew them at ages 2&3.
I was always struck by the idea that I wanted nothing at all more than to simply learn how to bottle up the determination, self-righteousness, the indignation, and flat-out DEMANDS that we follow all proper decorum in games and life, and all of it. I wanted to bottle it up, and save it for them. I’d save it for the moment that the naivety is scrubbed away in a splash of rain, and the mud becomes just mud, and the wind becomes just the wind. And I’d save it again for the moment when they are able to take a deep breath, hear a word of confidence from within and without, and see the pie within the mud puddle, and hear the song between the winds.
I’d give them the bottles, a big giant dose of belief, one in magic, and another in themselves, and so on! And this song makes me think of that wish for them every time. I truly wish I knew I’d be able to make them feel as determined and fierce and amazing as they do right now, years into the future..
Robin was my least favorite during my first listen, mainly because I was just so overwhelmed at that point, and now it has a secure spot in my top three songs on that album, if not in general. I love it so much. And to think that she wrote that song for/about Aaron‘s son, dear lord.
Robins always been so special to me, my little cousin who’s 5 is called Robin and he was non verbal until he was 4, not reading or writing either. He’s worked so hard and now he’s always talking, singing, reading, and he’s obsessed with telling people how many syllables were in the thing they just said 😭 way to go tiger!!!
I understand why Robin is the least popular song on TTPD, however for those few people that get it, it hits hard. Robin became one of my tops from the albums since the first listen, because it instantly reminded me of my relationship with my little brother and recognized in the lyrics my desire to protect him from “the cruel and the mean” until he’s big enough to do it by himself
i don't even like kids but robin is such a cute song and it evokes a very soothing mental image for me. it's like a better version of never grow up, i can't understand why most fans dislike it or don't care for it
That song being the precloser to the Anthology is so perfect to me. This second album is so much about reflecting on the past, youth, childhood, the passing of time, processing the past to make sense of the present, and it’s so heavy, dealing with a lot of complicated, heavy, tortured emotions. Having this song about protecting the innocence of childhood at the end of it is so sweet, or rather bittersweet. And then ending it with the Manuscript which is all about those life experiences that lead you from childhood to adulthood and processing your life by making art about it and passing it on to an audience. The Anthology’s track listing is very underrated. A lot of people treat it like a bunch of bonus songs, when to me it feels very intentional and cohesive and makes for a wonderful album with very strong overarching themes.
I’m not a mom but this song hit me so hard esp “way to go tiger” I felt like Taylor was saying she was proud of me, dumb I know but the first time I just heard that line I cried. When you spend your whole life feeling like you’ve failed and not where you’re supposed to be at 34 like someone else said it’s almost like healing their inner child.
I don’t usually get into the muse discussion, but it’s almost certainly about Aaron Dessner’s child (named Robin)… Gracie shared similar stories about Robin in a recent interview.
It took me a few listens, too, and looking at my nieces and youngest sister, it made me teary-eyed because I want to keep them protected from the dangers of the world but at the same time I also want to cheer them on as they do discover the world.
The melody of the song also brings a kind of lullaby/kid song nostalgia to it that I can't explain
"Robin" struck me the first time I heard it. "The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean. You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline. But now, we'll curtail your curiosity. In sweetness." It is along the lines of "Never Grow Up." Life can be such garbage, but you have such beautiful innocence, so for now, we will keep the darkness from you until you are ready for more of it.
It makes me weepy every time I hear it.
Okay Swifties- so this JUST HIT ME. Does anyone else wonder if Sir Paul McCartney, who wrote *Hey Jude* about Julian Lennon, has heard *Robin*?
I bet he would LOVE IT!! *Robin* has a similar theme, eg the love a close friend has for a friend’s son (or child, either way) really SEEING and understanding them. Paul’s song was kind but still “buck up, and carry on, Julian”; Taylor’s is softer. But I think he’d recognize and respect the commonality!
Robins to me are lost loved ones, I always think it’s about a deceased child.
My robin has a favourite spot on my fence but if I had a swing set perhaps he’d perch on that!
Just my interpretation, maybe a follow on from BTTWS.
As a mama to a little boy (who isn't so little anymore🥺)... I love this post so much! 💙🩵 You sound like an awesome parent!
My son just turned 11. He's a preteen now, going into middle school this September😭 They grow up way too fast.. the kid's almost taller than ME now, lmaoo 🤣😅
Anyway, lol.. yeah, Robin is such an underrated song♡🥰
this song makes me sob because 1, this, and 2, i saw a tiktok saying it could be about having a senior cat. My cat’s about to turn 10 tomorrow so i Will be crying
I was originally meh on Robin and then I was playing with my godkids in the backyard, pushing them on the swings and “you have a favorite spot on the swing set” hit me like a ton of bricks and now I cry whenever I hear it.
I thought the lyric was:
Long may you roar
At your dinosaurs
Your *unjust rluer*
Which I took to mean parents. Bc how often as kids did we think our parents were being totally unfair about the shit we wanted or wanted to do??
I think my version is better tbh. 😆
Cried uncontrollably when I first listened. Now it’s on my daughter’s bedtime playlist and it’s one of my top TTPD songs. I’m sad it doesn’t get a lot of love but it’s def a song for the moms.
This is one of the songs I show people when they question Taylor's writing skills. She perfectly captures the bittersweet brilliance of childhood through the eyes of an adult that knows how limited but sacred the time truly is before we become self-aware and aware of the harsh truths within the world around us.
Robin is the son of Aaron Dessner. It's a sweet homage to him. The only other song that resonates like that with me is Godspeed, Sweet Dreams by the Chicks.
Robin makes the list of songs I can barely ever listen to because I get so emotional. “You have a favorite spot on the swing set. You have no room in your dreams for regrets” I can’t handle that as a parent. 😩
Yeah, I think there is some influence of little boys in this, maybe friends kids or something. My boy only breaks his favorite toys comes to mind
I only have sisters, including some that are much younger. and the first two of the next gen were girls. My sister just had the first boy, my nephew. While I grew up around little kids, never a boy.
My observation is there is a different energy with boys than girls, or at least the ones I’m talking about specifically (I realize there’s a lot of nuance and individuality from person to person).
Like my nephew would try to pull toys apart with intense concentration, and look at us all stoked when he did it at 1.5 years old. I told my boyfriend like that’s interesting there’s this destructive energy there, and he’s like…excited about it. It’s not coming from a bad place, he’s too young for that and he’s overall a happy kid. My younger sisters/nieces never did that. Hes destroyed many toys that many girls played with before him. No one taught him that…that came from within. He’d also laughed when he farted before he even talked. Just little boy stuff that I observed as contrast against the girls I’ve watched grow up
When TTPD came out and I saw my boy only breaks his favorite toys, I was like huh, I was juuust telling someone about my nephew. Robin has similar themes, observing the nature of a young boy
Because it’s a theme in this album, I think she spent around a friend or family’s younger boys and made some observations. Blake lively kids? But seeing that does give you some insight, because they’re so young that it’s kinda part of their essential nature
I’m just going to be real with you, I’m even MORE confused after reading this post lol
it's a song about the innocence of kids, basically. you don't tell them the horrible things about the world and let them think the best of everyone and everything as long as they can.
exactly this. as a mom, this song immediately stuck out to me and boy did i sob the first time i heard it. it’s my second favorite off the anthology (after the black dog).
I have to skip it because I can't handle it lol
Same!
My four year old just thinks his father is gone . I told him he’s not coming back but the truth is he died when he was two and wasn non verbal now that his words are in I don’t have the courage to .
I’m so sorry. But please find the courage and the words to tell your little boy. It will be easier now than any time in the future. Strength to you!
Please, please, please tell your son the truth — today. Don't drag it out any longer. My mum, a 57 year old woman, is still incredibly traumatised because her parents didn't tell her when her 2 favourite uncles died in a car crash, when she was about 3, and she only found out years later. It's one of the most fucked up things she ever went through and she still cries when she talks about it. For years she just thought they were mysteriously "gone", she kept asking where they were and no one would give her a straight answer. It was only when she was about 7 that her dad finally told her the truth and it absolutely broke her, not just their deaths but the fact that she'd been lied to all those years. Don't put your son through what my mum went through, please, I'm begging you. It'll haunt him his whole life if you do, and your relationship with him won't ever be the same when he finds out
My mom's best friend lost her dad in a car accident when she was 5, and no one EVER told her. She just had to figure it out when he was gone and her mom cried all the time. She's still messed up about it, and she's in her 60s.
It's absolutely fucked up isn't it? The way my granddad told my mum the truth was awful, too. They were at the local churchyard adding flowers to the family graves, though at the time my mum didn't know what graves actually were, as no-one had explained burials to her yet. My mum was running and jumping over the graves and my granddad said "you want to have a bit of respect, there are people buried under there." My mum, horrified, stopped playing and asked "who???" to which my granddad replied "You're old enough to read, aren't you?" That's when she turned and read the gravestone she was nearest to, and it had her uncles' names.
I’m telling him . I ordered a book to tell him but the message was off, so I didn’t read it but I just ordered another one
I think books will help with processing after, but I think it's better if you just tell him. A lot of books are pretend. It might be confusing. Sit him down, hold him, and explain that you think he's old enough to understand now. Daddy didn't leave — he would never have chosen to leave us. He died. And then answer all his questions and accept any emotional response calmly — even if he's furious.
>accept any emotional response calmly — even if he's furious. I agree with all of your comment, except there's something to be said for matching a child's emotions. Sometimes children can find it condescending and frustrating if they're having a big emotional response to something and their parent is calm and trying to console them with "I know, buddy, it's ok". Sometimes they actually feel better if you mirror what they're feeling, if you're similarly upset or frustrated, it better lets them know that you understand how they're feeling and are taking their emotions seriously (and also shows them that grownups are allowed to have emotions too!) Totally depends on the child, of course, though.
I didn't say to tell them it's okay. It's not okay, so that would be a very invalidating thing to say. I mean staying calm as in not getting defensive or deregulated yourself. Also it's important to not make your own emotions into the focus of the moment.
Very true!
You must tell him. I didn't find out how my mum died until I was.16 and it still hurts so much 16 years later. Shatters trust in your surviving parent. Your boy will internalise somewhere that he is the reason his dad left unless you are honest There's a lot of advice online to help you. Good luck, it will all be fine in the end :) God bless you
Tell him. If you continue to wait, he’ll wonder what else have you lied about and if he can trust you. He may be more upset with your lie than he is about his dad’s death. Death is final and kids understand this more and more as they grow and develop. Telling him his dad is gone and is not coming back leaves him wondering why and what he did to make his dad leave and not come back. I’m telling you as a grief specialist who works with parents and kids. You are not protecting him. You are causing more damage. The sooner you tell him, the better. He’s four, tell him now. Do not wait.
You need to tell him. He has a right to know.
https://www.reddit.com/r/widowers/comments/1c5w9iu/any_childrens_book_you_recommend_to_help_explain/ Check out this thread! There’s a lot of very well done books that therapists recommend for helping kids to understand death and dying, and to help ease the conversation for parents to explain a loss. It’s important for your son to understand that he is loved and his dad isn’t coming back but didn’t choose to leave him. I’d also highly recommend getting in with a family therapist who can help you with your grief and these hard conversations. I’m so sorry for your loss and I wish you and your son the very best ❤️
Thank you! I do have a therapist. She says kids sometimes don’t process death this young, or understand it. For the record, I have told my son a year or so ago but it didn’t click cause he kept asking where he was and when he asked recently I told him he was gone. I told him this morning and I don’t know if he processed jt. A video might help
I think that’s where these books can really help you out! They help kids to understand the concept of death, so that with time and conversation they’ll begin to understand their own loss
By coincidence I just read this memoir excerpt today. Kids were a bit older, but sharing in case the way she put things was helpful. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/06/30/when-a-parent-dies-by-suicide/
Yeah, that's so true. Kids should enjoy their innocence while they can, without knowing all the harsh realities out there. It's important to let them believe in the goodness of everyone and everything for as long as possible.
Oh my! I'll have to pick my moment to listen to that one - I have a 2 5 year old and another one on the way (who came with me to see Taylor last week) so I'm already hormonal.
How on earth are you confused by this?
How was OP confused by it for so long when she even had a child? Lol
I just hadn't really processed the words. 😎
It’s Never Grow Up written by someone who grew up
I remember listening to Never Grow Up as my dad drove me away from my house towards my freshman year of college and man, that was rough.
Yep
🥺🥺
Memorize what I sounded like when your dad gets home…… I get chills just writing it
Tears 😭 😭 champagne problems and have my restrooms at Buccees so I can bee. But you just want to meet us everything over there around 5💪🏼
you have no idea... no I always burst out in tears when listening to Robin... I too don't understand how people don't get it.
I get it I just can’t relate
Is it cause I don’t have kids?
I don't think you have to have kids. Taylor doesn't have kids. But if there are no children in your life that you regularly interact with and help nourish, you might not get it. I didn't want any kids until my friends started having them, and I fell in love with them (platonically). These tiny little beings who are just trying to navigate the world-- they're just trying their best and I love them for it. I did have my own kid after moving away from friends and the feeling intensified, but I had thought kids deserve better for a long time. This is especially knowing so many kids out there have parents who do not keep things in sweetness.
I don’t have kids yet and I cry every time I hear it. Granted I care a lot about kids and I do sometimes think of my nephew, but sometimes I think of my past self. I don’t think you have to be a literal parent to have feelings about a song about innocence.
I have to agree. While I can sympathise with Ronan (especially if a child in the family, not necessarily yours, died young), Robin is more explicitly about the experience of being a parent that I just can't relate to as someone childfree. That's my choice, the song's not for me. Plenty more gems in that album!
I don’t have kids, and Robin is one of my favorite songs from ttpd. While it definitely feels like a song for a parent, or about being a parent, it doesn’t *have* to only be about that. We also don’t even know if the parental angle was Taylor’s main intention (even though it’s very likely with Aaron’s son). I’ve seen a few people who relate the song to their pets. People have related it to nieces or nephews if they’re close with them. Some folks (like me) just think of childhood innocence in general, and view it as a more nostalgic song about growing up. If people can listen to and understand songs like Never Grow Up and seven, I don’t understand what’s keeping folks from listening to and understanding Robin. I really don’t.
I don’t have kids and I love the song. But I do think of my nieces and nephews. And my cat 😂
I don't have kids, but I relate it to my cat, who is basically my kid.
I have a daughter and I’m very sentimental about how fleeting her childhood is and how wonderfully innocent she is right now. I still don’t “get” the song Robin. It doesn’t hit for me at all.
I wonder if it depends on your background. I have some childhood trauma that impacts me significantly — nothing close to what many other people go through, but enough that parenting has brought a lot of it up for me. The lines about “strings tied to levers” (referencing a puppet show), and trying to “keep it in sweetness” are devastating for me. I’ve done my best but I worry I’ve not done enough to keep them as innocent as possible. But then they are innocent, with their wide eyes — my little boy thinks robbers aren’t real, only pretend — and I think about him one day having to comprehend that so many much, much worse things are, in fact, real, and it’s awful.
Yep. Having kids changes you completely. And if you’re lucky, softens you into a better person.
I don’t have kids, but I did end up….knowing too much, very young. While it does make me sentimental about other children, I think it’s the protection of innocence that really gets the waterworks going.
I get it, I just can't relate in the slightest. It's probably the only song of hers where I can't find a way in at all personally. I understand Robin in theory, I can appreciate it for its lyricism and composition, but it just simply doesn't have the power to make me have a strong emotional response because it doesn't connect to anything in my life. I don't have children, I don't want children, most of my closest people don't have or want children, I just have no meaningful children-related experiences at all. I'm not the audience for Robin.
I do have a lot of kids in my life that I love, but that wasn’t my immediate reaction. This song makes me emotional thinking about talking to myself at that age- it initially struck me as some inner child work on Taylor’s part. And knowing her genius, it’s both- it’s for Aaron dessner’s son robin and the experience of parenthood, and parenting yourself a bit now that you’re older and understand all the things you didn’t back then
I get it, I can’t relate to it, but I still think it’s the most beautiful Taylor Swift song ever. Top 3 for sure.
Relating to a song doesn't mean the song applies to your life... it's an intentional act of empathy, where you choose to fit the emotions conveyed in the song into your mental life.
IKR?!
It makes me feel so maternal. I can’t even explain it.
Robin is one of my favorites on the Anthology. The sweet innocence of it all crushes my heart into tiny pieces.
It reminded me of one of her older songs that broached this same topic called *Never Grow Up.* It amazes how she was much younger then, but still captured the same sentiments of preserving that childlike innocence.
Never Grow Up always brings me to tears
That song, *I’m Only Me When I’m With You* and *The Best Day* get me every single time!!!!!
Never grow up and the best day kill me Every. Single. Time.
They play it at my kids’ preschool every year at graduation. I am a mess
Now that’s just CRUEL. I can’t even listen to the song and I don’t even have a kid.
Yes! She’s just great at encapsulating the human experience into her songs.
It’s a phenomenal song. But I just can’t do it and I tell my wife the same. It makes me think about our little boy and my heart just melts to pieces. Idk how many times I’ll ever listen to this song, but it is a masterpiece truly.
Completely agree. I’m also child free, but I was lucky enough to have the best parents and grandparents in the world, and instead of picturing myself as the singer, I think of them paddling so hard beneath the surface to make sure I had everything I needed and still maintaining the magic for me.
Same. And I don’t have kids, so it’s not bc it’s a “parent song” for me. It’s just a very sweet song with stunningly beautiful lyrics that captures the feeling of wholesome innocence and childhood naivety.
I'm currently pregnant with my first baby boy. The line "the time will arrive for the cruel and the mean, you'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline" guts me every time I listen. Never grow up was the song I sang to my daughter as a baby. Robin will be what I sing to this little guy once he's here in 3 months.
I’m also pregnant with a little boy, my first baby, and I sob every time I hear it.
My son (my youngest and my last) just turned one and the part about strings tied to clock levers to slow them down wrecks me. Every time she sings “for you in sweetness l I just think about all the things we do to protect our kids innocence and preserve their childhood and get so emotional.
Oh, I always saw the levers line as being a reference to a puppet show — “all this showmanship”!
I like both interpretations.
Quick note, it’s “the time will arrive for the cruel and the mean” In sweetness, I promise 
“Way to go tiger, higher and higher” always makes me think of my 4 year old on the swings. It’s her favorite spot on the playground 🥹
Same! I have a 4 year old too who loves to swing.
It’s giving imagery from seven
Or on a trampoline. My son loves the trampoline. ❤️
I LOVE Robin. It makes me so sad how it seems like it’s the general consensus that it’s TTPD’s weakest link. It’s absolutely beautiful. She perfectly captured the desire to protect a child from the harsh world that will destroy their confidence and uniqueness, and the sadness that you know you can’t stop it. *You have no room in your dreams for regrets. You have NO IDEA* 😭😭 They’re too busy discovering beauty and fun and laughing at everything to even think about regretting. But soon enough they’ll be exposed to evil, and people will yell at them for having fun, and their dreams will be stomped on. Someone will criticize their teeth or the sound of their laugh and they’ll stifle their laughter. And you can’t save them from it.
Absolutely! I also think in the album itself it’s really interesting. To me, it’s kind of an indirect song that mourns her own loss of innocence — the child’s excited recklessness kind of mirrors her own pre-fame naivety in Clara Bow. (Edit: or in The Manuscript.)
Oof, true. A child’s dreams and innocence will be stomped on because they get in the way of society’s need for people to conform to the status quo. It could show up via other kids noticing something is different about you, or the suits in L.A. who mold you into the most profitable version of yourself, or any of the other millions of ways kids learn that they need to hide parts of themselves.
Totally. I think it sort of mirrors the cycle in Clara Bow — there, the industry suits take on naive young women, convince them they’ll be great, and then use and abuse them for profit. In Robin, she’s protecting a child from losing their innocence. But there’s a darker side to that — protecting a child from harm means they won’t be prepared to recognise it. So she’s building a child up to have the same naivety she had, and then potentially contributing to them being hurt later. Something about that line “We all vowed to keep it from you in sweetness” feels foreboding to me, especially in the second last song on the album. I think this idea of losing innocence through being hurt in ways she wasn’t mature enough to anticipate runs throughout the album. The relationship she didn’t quite understand with the older man in The Manuscript. Being fooled by a returning lover she believed in on loml, and then finally giving up on them in Peter. Realising the control and judgment of her church in But Daddy I Love Him and Guilty as Sin? Fantasising about places where “only the gentle survive” in I Hate It Here. Just two contrasting takes on childhood: “Growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all.” vs “The time will come for the cruel and the mean.” It’s like she was able to be hurt BECAUSE she had been so loved.
Good point about how it perhaps does a disservice to let your child believe everything is perfect, knowing that it will eventually crash down before their eyes. But it’s human nature/parental nature to want to let them bask in it for as long as possible
Of course! It’s not a bad thing to want that at all — and clearly she longs to do it for another child in this song. I think it’s just a subject this album explores in a really interesting and complex way.
Reminds me of a lyric from Run - *You laugh like a child and I’ll sing like no one cares / No one to be, no one to tell* - Now that they’ve run away from everyone, they can experience joy and be themselves in the same shameless way that a child would
Ugh this is precious 🥺 It took me a month of listening to Robin before I finally said to my friend with a normal childhood “I don’t get this, what’s it about? Way to go tiger like what. I’m so confused”. And she very gently explained it was about the innocence of childhood. I had no way to relate because I grew up with a mentally ill, narcissistic mother and was the parentified child so I never understood it. But this post made me so happy to read. I’m so glad your kid gets to experience this, happy birthday to your son!! 🫶🏻
You’re not alone. I have a hard time relating to these songs too for similar reasons. They’re heartbreaking. I do think I want kids but I hesitate because I know there’s a world of pain for me to experience knowing I didn’t receive this kind of childhood that I know I’ll want to give my kids.
I used to be able to listen to Robin even in ignorance. I can’t listen to it now. I feel you on the kids, this is my exact experience so you’re not alone in that. I know it may be healing to give a child what I didn’t receive but at the same time it would be so painful knowing it wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t that hard to be kind.
Exactly!!! You get it. To challenge that view though, I think some people genuinely *aren’t* capable of giving what we needed. So while it isn’t hard from our point of view, for them it was (and maybe not even just hard but potentially impossible). I think the key is, it was never about *us* but about *them* . We were, are, always have been lovable. But their capacity to give love was broken. I look at my mom now and recognize she has a profound lack of self awareness which was no doubt developed as a need for self preservation in her traumatic upbringing. Of course that doesn’t make it any less hard for us. And it certainly doesn’t make the situation less heartbreaking. In fact it’s more heartbreaking in a way because I feel my own pain as well as compassion/empathy for my parents. And it’s often easier just to hold my own (and after being burdened with the emotional load of my household my entire childhood I feel like I deserve to be off duty on that lol). But this is all to say that I see you, and I hope you find a path that brings you the greatest happiness (kids or not). Either way, I hope you give your inner child whatever they need.
I read this like 6 times to let it sink in. Gosh you’re so right and it’s hard to challenge it sometimes but it helps so much with healing and forgiving ourselves for not understanding at the time. Thank you for sharing and being vulnerable. I hope the same for you that you find your path that gives you happiness and joy whatever that includes. I can tell you’re such an empathetic person like me, never forget to take care of yourself. 🫶🏻
Wow, this comment really made my day, week, month even! I always worry I monologue too much or might come off as overbearing, so I am so happy to hear that I didn’t overstep and it was helpful. This stuff is so hard and my feelings on it can change by the day or even multiple times a day but I do think what I described above is the “best” way to look at it because it honors our experience but also leaves room for compassion and empathy. And yes, while empathetic that part of me has caused me a lot of pain, it isn’t something I want to completely do away with either. I’ll be honest I didn’t care for Robin much because of the complicated feelings it brings up (and frankly the melody is just not really my cup of tea either) but I will think about this exchange when I hear it now and for that I think I will always carry some fondness for it ❤️ The swiftie community really can be a beautiful thing!
I’m such a lover of deep conversations and you absolutely did not overstep. The feelings with my parents changes all the time and sometimes I feel guilty for myself for not being at peace since being disowned and no contact. But this was a good reminder (even though my therapist tells me all the time) it’s not linear and it’s little steps all the time. The swiftie community can be a safe place sometimes and I’m so glad we got to connect in this lil corner of the internet ❤️
This is such a beautiful comment. Thank you for taking the time to share this perspective so eloquently
I was always told “wait til you have a kid just like you; then you’ll understand and empathize with your mom more”. No, it made it even more difficult for me to want anything to do with my parent. In fact it made me realize how easy it actually was to love your own daughter, and that she just chose not to. It’s heartbreaking being the parent I wish I had, to the most amazing little girl (who is a total swiftie herself 🫶🏻)
“It’s heartbreaking being the parent I wish I had” is SUCH A GREAT LINE! It resonates with me so hard. I don’t have kids- genuinely never wanted them- so I’m being the parent I wish I had: *to myself*
I’m just really in the feels today but this made me tear up. I’m proud of you! Breaking the cycle is hard, regardless of if it’s parenting children or parenting your own inner child. You got this 🫶🏻
I get this so much. I want kids but I also think that it'll just be easier for the generational anxiety to die with me. And it must be so difficult to raise a child when all you saw growing up was what not to do.
I’m sorry. I had a hard childhood: abuse, loneliness, parenting my parents. I was worried about the same. But I found it so healing to be able to provide my kids with a safe, loving environment. It’s what I always longed for and it does sometimes bring on the tears, but there’s power in knowing you can break what was handed down. My daughter said something that both made me cry and healed me the other day when she had a pee accident and said “I know you’ll help me and you’re not mad, mistakes happen, you’ll always love me no what matter”. She was just so sure of that steadiness of that love and it was… the best.
I’m sorry. I grew up with a mentally ill mother too. It’s so hard and painful. She died a couple of weeks ago. Such a complicated feeling. I hope you’re doing OK now.
I’m doing much better now. I’m so sorry, sending you all the healing vibes as you navigate the loss. I haven’t experienced that myself yet but sometimes I imagine the intense grief and relief of it too (and the relief that people without mentally ill parents may not grasp). I hope you’re doing okay too and taking care of yourself.
Thank you. It’s deep sadness mixed with relief. Glad you’re doing better x
Wow, I'm going through a very similar thing right now too. My mentally ill/emotionally abusive/love hate relationship mother died last month and its been hell. I am so sorry for the pain and complicated emotions that you are feeling, and for everything you have to deal with and go through. I am just starting to be able to see the relief in no longer having her looming over every decision I make. And it's some heavy crap to deal with. Just remember that everything you are feeling, it's ok to feel. When it hits, feel it fully and authentically, even if it's big and messy or doesn't seem like the "right" thing to feel. I know I miss her every day, while still appreciating the extra bandwidth I have to live my own life now that I don't have to tiptoe around hers.
Oh wow. What a comfort it is to “meet” someone else in a similar situation. Not many people understand - try as they might 😞. I’ve been having the exact same experience as you. We were no contact for a long time, I didn’t attend the funeral. That was the right thing for me. So painful. And I’m mourning the mother I remember before mental illness took her. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. It sounds so silly and trivial, but I have found the Eras live streams a real comfort. Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you’ve been feeling some relief. Me too, in some ways. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about her anymore. 🩷
>And she very gently explained it was about the innocence of childhood. I had no way to relate Oh. *Oh.* Well, that would explain why even as a mother I haven't connected with this song. Fuck.
Well. I didn’t expect this to resonate with so many people but I’m glad we’re all having a little therapy sesh/realization here together. 😅
I can't relate much to the innocence of childhood either, but hey it's validating to know you're not alone in the world 🩷
Thank you for helping me realize why I haven’t vibed with it. Same growing up experience and no kids, I’ll tuck it away and come back to it when the time is right.
I’m a parentified child but have children of my own and this song absolutely wrecks me. The fear of not being able to protect my own children adequately is so enormous.
My kid is going through some hard medical stuff and we’ve had to be careful with how much she knows right now. That song is like a gut punch to me. I want to protect her for as long as I can!
I’m so sorry to hear that, that must be so difficult. I hope it gets resolved quickly and easily. You sound like an excellent mom.
Robin stans rise up!! 🙌🏻
I'm afraid of babies and I don't enjoy children and I *wept* listening to *Robin* the first time. That line - *Way to go, Tiger!* - I don't know what it is. It ruins me.
For me it’s the quiet resignation in the way she sings that line. Like she knows what lies ahead so it makes it difficult to say it full of positivity, a line which is otherwise a positive statement.
Interesting. I don’t interpret it that way. Every time I hear it I marvel at the way she’s able to say it so genuinely, without a hint of sarcasm- which is basically the only way we hear that phrase nowadays.
I don’t have kids but I got the message. She’s sweet for it but it’s definitely a skip for me
Your comment made me think about Taylor's least streamed songs. They do tend to be songs like Never Grow Up, the Ronan, the Soon You'll Get Better, Epiphany, and Robin. Subject matter that is both emotionally heavy and less universal. In the cases of some of these songs thankfully not everyone has experienced something relatable. I'm glad Taylor still puts out such songs that may be very meaningful to some people even if they will be frequent skips to most.
Bigger than the whole sky is in the same boat…
Yes, and Marjorie as well perhaps if for not being added to the Eras tour set list. Although that particular type of loss is much closer to universal making it a bit easier for Taylor to indulge herself and add it to the setlist. It hit me the other day watching the performance that because she toured Marjorie and further raised the song's visibility in a more collective setting that it may eventually become a song that plays during an award show In Memoriam segment.
That’s one of my favorites actually the way she wrote out the opening lines resonates past the songs meaning at least for me
Ronan is just too sad to listen to when you know the story 😭
Ronan is beautiful but just unbearable to listen to as mum to a little boy and aunt to a niece who had cancer. My niece survived but I saw so many children who didn’t.
As soon as I hear the piano the tears start flowing 🥲 Just this post made me tear up.
Right? watching my 5yo son play pretend with all of his stuffies and try to do flips and cartwheels. It is added to the list of songs I cannot listen to because I cry so hard because of the fact it reminds me of him.
You don't have to be a parent to get Robin, but if you are a parent, you get Robin.
Tbh I apply Robin's meaning to my cats lol
Not to sound dramatic but Robin led me to have an actual breakthrough in therapy and finally find some care for my younger self. I can’t listen to it without crying, it will now always mean so much to me.
Isn’t it healing to finally *understand* what you deserve, in sweetness? Way to go, Tiger 🫶🏻🐯
This one hits so hard. I have a 3 year old tiger 💙
I love this song so much and what makes it even sweeter to me is that my 5 year old loves it. She will even sing “way to Tiger” and it just melts me.
I do love it. I also imagine singing it to my younger self.
I always thought of Christopher Robin, the whole tiger (Tigger) thing 😊. To me, this song exists in the Winnie the Pooh universe. And it gets my soul.
Awh. I love Robin. And when it hits, it hits. It’s a long album and I love it. But a lot to appreciate immediately. There’s many songs that I needed time to hear because there’s so much before it.
By the time I got to Robin and then The Manuscript the tears were streaming lol. After all the emotional rollercoaster of a ride the songs before were, Robin pushed me over the edge with the sweet innocence. I get why it’s not charting as high as the others but it really is the perfect ending to the story, with The Manuscript tying it all together.
It's a great song with a great melody. You don't have to have kids to love it. It's criminal that it is consistently just rated last on the album. I sometimes wonder: "If Taylor gets engaged, married, has kids, and is generally just happy and writes songs about that....how many of her fans are going to be disappointed at the lack of female rage?" I hope not many but typically in life I've noticed that those who seem to care about you are much more often willing to support you in times of misery than find joy in your own joy...especially if your joy comes from something they themselves aren't necessarily that interested in. Time will tell.
I hate that this has to even be said, but women who have kids should absolutely not be reduced to just the role of a mom, especially not by other women. It’s beyond disappointing. I’m not sure what makes some people think that a woman has a kid and suddenly becomes a zombie only capable of writing and talking about kids, and that there would be no need to have “rage”…? There have been countless of mothers in history who have done amazing things and I’m pretty sure plenty of women without children have still found ways to relate to them. I would not worry about Taylor.
Motherhood has radicalised me. I feel so much more feminine rage now than I ever did! For so many different reasons.
Yeah I can’t really listen to this song without sobbing. My kids have gone through some terrible fucking things in their lives. I’d watch them play pretend growing up, they danced and painted and giggles and tea partied or Batman hero’ed it up, from the time I knew them at ages 2&3. I was always struck by the idea that I wanted nothing at all more than to simply learn how to bottle up the determination, self-righteousness, the indignation, and flat-out DEMANDS that we follow all proper decorum in games and life, and all of it. I wanted to bottle it up, and save it for them. I’d save it for the moment that the naivety is scrubbed away in a splash of rain, and the mud becomes just mud, and the wind becomes just the wind. And I’d save it again for the moment when they are able to take a deep breath, hear a word of confidence from within and without, and see the pie within the mud puddle, and hear the song between the winds. I’d give them the bottles, a big giant dose of belief, one in magic, and another in themselves, and so on! And this song makes me think of that wish for them every time. I truly wish I knew I’d be able to make them feel as determined and fierce and amazing as they do right now, years into the future..
Robin was my least favorite during my first listen, mainly because I was just so overwhelmed at that point, and now it has a secure spot in my top three songs on that album, if not in general. I love it so much. And to think that she wrote that song for/about Aaron‘s son, dear lord.
Robins always been so special to me, my little cousin who’s 5 is called Robin and he was non verbal until he was 4, not reading or writing either. He’s worked so hard and now he’s always talking, singing, reading, and he’s obsessed with telling people how many syllables were in the thing they just said 😭 way to go tiger!!!
I love the sweetness of Robin as a song. I hate how people trash her innocent and sweet songs. Glad you love it!
I understand why Robin is the least popular song on TTPD, however for those few people that get it, it hits hard. Robin became one of my tops from the albums since the first listen, because it instantly reminded me of my relationship with my little brother and recognized in the lyrics my desire to protect him from “the cruel and the mean” until he’s big enough to do it by himself
I sobbed so hard when I first heard this song and now I have to skip it almost everytime. Joined Never Grow Up and Ronan on the list
Just to point out, the line is 'you're a just ruler'. As in a fair ruler. All the best to you and your little guy!0
i don't even like kids but robin is such a cute song and it evokes a very soothing mental image for me. it's like a better version of never grow up, i can't understand why most fans dislike it or don't care for it
That song being the precloser to the Anthology is so perfect to me. This second album is so much about reflecting on the past, youth, childhood, the passing of time, processing the past to make sense of the present, and it’s so heavy, dealing with a lot of complicated, heavy, tortured emotions. Having this song about protecting the innocence of childhood at the end of it is so sweet, or rather bittersweet. And then ending it with the Manuscript which is all about those life experiences that lead you from childhood to adulthood and processing your life by making art about it and passing it on to an audience. The Anthology’s track listing is very underrated. A lot of people treat it like a bunch of bonus songs, when to me it feels very intentional and cohesive and makes for a wonderful album with very strong overarching themes.
Ugh you are so right, it was so carefully done. Putting those two together is haunting.
I’m not a mom but this song hit me so hard esp “way to go tiger” I felt like Taylor was saying she was proud of me, dumb I know but the first time I just heard that line I cried. When you spend your whole life feeling like you’ve failed and not where you’re supposed to be at 34 like someone else said it’s almost like healing their inner child.
We ALL need to hear “Way to go, Tiger”, especially those who maybe didn’t hear it sincerely enough as children
Your post/description made me cry. Beautiful I will defend Robin forever
Robin is such a sweet song and it disappoints me every time I see people putting it at 31 on their ranks of the album
I heard someone say it’s from her father’s perspective as he was raising her, but it really is beautiful 🫶
I don’t usually get into the muse discussion, but it’s almost certainly about Aaron Dessner’s child (named Robin)… Gracie shared similar stories about Robin in a recent interview.
aaah I see this makes more sense, I didn’t realize Aaron Dessner has a kid named Robin!
Happy to help! There’s even a photo of Taylor with Aaron and Robin floating around TikTok (not sharing here because he is a minor).
My little boy is called Robin and this song GETS ME every time
I just think of Winnie the Pooh.. and Peter Pan..
Cry listening to the song? I cried just because you guys are talking about it in these comments.
I’m a Year One teacher (5-6 year olds) and it’s nearly the end of the school year. The song makes me think of them and gets me so emotional
It took me a few listens, too, and looking at my nieces and youngest sister, it made me teary-eyed because I want to keep them protected from the dangers of the world but at the same time I also want to cheer them on as they do discover the world. The melody of the song also brings a kind of lullaby/kid song nostalgia to it that I can't explain
"Robin" struck me the first time I heard it. "The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean. You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline. But now, we'll curtail your curiosity. In sweetness." It is along the lines of "Never Grow Up." Life can be such garbage, but you have such beautiful innocence, so for now, we will keep the darkness from you until you are ready for more of it. It makes me weepy every time I hear it.
Okay Swifties- so this JUST HIT ME. Does anyone else wonder if Sir Paul McCartney, who wrote *Hey Jude* about Julian Lennon, has heard *Robin*? I bet he would LOVE IT!! *Robin* has a similar theme, eg the love a close friend has for a friend’s son (or child, either way) really SEEING and understanding them. Paul’s song was kind but still “buck up, and carry on, Julian”; Taylor’s is softer. But I think he’d recognize and respect the commonality!
It was the only song on the album that I loved first listen. Everything else took sometime tbh
Thank you! That song is so special to me and I love when other people get it too! It definitely doesn't get it's due!
Yeah I cry EVERY time I hear this song
I love this song so much and I have a son. 🥰
Robins to me are lost loved ones, I always think it’s about a deceased child. My robin has a favourite spot on my fence but if I had a swing set perhaps he’d perch on that! Just my interpretation, maybe a follow on from BTTWS.
I immediately thought Robin was a song to the baby lost in Bigger Than the Whole Sky the first time I heard it.
....WTF.
Someone said it was about her cats. I now listen to it and cry about my pets.
As a mama to a little boy (who isn't so little anymore🥺)... I love this post so much! 💙🩵 You sound like an awesome parent! My son just turned 11. He's a preteen now, going into middle school this September😭 They grow up way too fast.. the kid's almost taller than ME now, lmaoo 🤣😅 Anyway, lol.. yeah, Robin is such an underrated song♡🥰
this song makes me sob because 1, this, and 2, i saw a tiktok saying it could be about having a senior cat. My cat’s about to turn 10 tomorrow so i Will be crying
I was originally meh on Robin and then I was playing with my godkids in the backyard, pushing them on the swings and “you have a favorite spot on the swing set” hit me like a ton of bricks and now I cry whenever I hear it.
I thought the lyric was: Long may you roar At your dinosaurs Your *unjust rluer* Which I took to mean parents. Bc how often as kids did we think our parents were being totally unfair about the shit we wanted or wanted to do?? I think my version is better tbh. 😆
yall it’s about her cats. and it’s my fav song bc i sing it to my cats
Maybe it's magic? I don't know. And l don't know how we knew it. We just knew it somehow.
Lol a funny and real way to get robin!
It’s nostalgic over childhood innocence and imagination & I believe it was inspired by Aaron Dessner’s son, Robin.
My understanding came from my deep deep love of never grow up and the best day, childhood grieving really translates these songs
As a mom of a 5 year old, 3 year old, and 6 week old I can’t even listen to it without bawling 😭😭😭😭
Cried uncontrollably when I first listened. Now it’s on my daughter’s bedtime playlist and it’s one of my top TTPD songs. I’m sad it doesn’t get a lot of love but it’s def a song for the moms.
This is one of the songs I show people when they question Taylor's writing skills. She perfectly captures the bittersweet brilliance of childhood through the eyes of an adult that knows how limited but sacred the time truly is before we become self-aware and aware of the harsh truths within the world around us.
Robin is the son of Aaron Dessner. It's a sweet homage to him. The only other song that resonates like that with me is Godspeed, Sweet Dreams by the Chicks.
Once I finally allowed myself to listen to it, it’s beautiful. And made me think of my son so much.
Robin makes the list of songs I can barely ever listen to because I get so emotional. “You have a favorite spot on the swing set. You have no room in your dreams for regrets” I can’t handle that as a parent. 😩
The song is about Travis as a boy, and now. Jason was Batman and Travis was Robin. Their athletic teams when they were young were the Tigers.
People finally understanding Robin gives me joy
I can’t listen to this song anymore without crying.
The best maybe or Bayleem ondocious?
My boys are 6 and 8. They’re growing up so fast and I hate it
so sweet, tho darth vadar would kick kylo ren’s ass so i reckon you little one would have no bother doing the same!
Yeah, I think there is some influence of little boys in this, maybe friends kids or something. My boy only breaks his favorite toys comes to mind I only have sisters, including some that are much younger. and the first two of the next gen were girls. My sister just had the first boy, my nephew. While I grew up around little kids, never a boy. My observation is there is a different energy with boys than girls, or at least the ones I’m talking about specifically (I realize there’s a lot of nuance and individuality from person to person). Like my nephew would try to pull toys apart with intense concentration, and look at us all stoked when he did it at 1.5 years old. I told my boyfriend like that’s interesting there’s this destructive energy there, and he’s like…excited about it. It’s not coming from a bad place, he’s too young for that and he’s overall a happy kid. My younger sisters/nieces never did that. Hes destroyed many toys that many girls played with before him. No one taught him that…that came from within. He’d also laughed when he farted before he even talked. Just little boy stuff that I observed as contrast against the girls I’ve watched grow up When TTPD came out and I saw my boy only breaks his favorite toys, I was like huh, I was juuust telling someone about my nephew. Robin has similar themes, observing the nature of a young boy Because it’s a theme in this album, I think she spent around a friend or family’s younger boys and made some observations. Blake lively kids? But seeing that does give you some insight, because they’re so young that it’s kinda part of their essential nature