"Watching You" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins

Rodney Allan Atkins is an American country music artist. Signed to Curb Records in 1996, he charted his first single on the Billboard country chart that year, but did not release an album until 2003's Honesty, which included the number 4 hit "Honesty ".If You're Going Through Hell, his second...

. It was released in September 2006 as the second single from the album, If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell is the second studio album released by country singer Rodney Atkins. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA for U.S...

. The single became Rodney's second number-one single on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart. It was named the number-one song of 2007 on Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's year-end chart.

Background and writing

The song was inspired by Atkins's son, Elijah. After having found out that Elijah had been singing Atkins' 2006 hit "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)

If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)

"If You're Going Through Hell " is the title of a song written by Dave Berg, Sam Tate and Annie Tate. It was recorded by American country music artist Rodney Atkins and released in January 2006 as the lead-off single to his 2006 album If You're Going Through Hell. The song became a number-one hit...

" to his teachers, he then had to explain to his son that it "might not be appropriate for him to be singing that in school".

Content

The song is a moderate up-tempo portraying two examples of a son learning from his father. In the first verse, the father and son are in the car together, driving through town. The son is eating a Happy Meal

Happy Meal

A "Happy Meal" is a meal specifically marketed at children, sold at the fast-food chain McDonald's since June 1979. A toy is typically included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a small box or paper bag with the McDonald's logo....

 in the passenger seat, just as the father slams on the brakes at a red light, causing the boy to spill his food all over himself and say "shit

Shit

Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...

". The father asks where his son learned to swear, and the boy then responds with, "I've been watching you, dad, ain't that cool / I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you".

In the second verse, the father heads out to his barn and begins to pray ("Lord, please help me help my stupid self"). Still later, at bedtime, the boy kneels beside his bed to pray as well, with his father watching. Upon hearing the boy's prayers, the father asks, "Where'd you learn to pray like that?", to which the boy again responds by saying that he has been watching his father. The father then responds by hugging his son and stating his pride in the boy's growing up.

Music video

The video portrays the events which are laid out in the song's lyrics. Elijah also portrays the child in the song's video, and as a result, he has gained recognition in public. It was Atkins' second video directed by Eric Welch.

Charts

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Chart (2006-2007)	Peak Position