Though "Thumbs" is often considered one of the best Sabrina Carpenter songs of all time, a very common complaint seems to be that the first few lines of the song are incredibly confusing. I was inspired by Ash's reaction video on EVOLution (which you should absolutely check out, she is so quirky and cute and her videos are just bursting with happy energy) to write a fun little article breaking down Sabrina's very confusing "family tree" at the beginning.
1. Somewhere in the world there is a father and a mother.
Okay, so nothing too confusing yet. Just a father and a mother lol.
2. The father is a son who has a mother.
Sabrina words this a bit confusingly, but now we're going up the family tree a bit to the paternal grandma.
3. Mother has a daughter
Now we're going back down the family tree to the father's sister.
4. who gets married to the brother of a mother.
Here's where it gets really confusing lol. So the father's sister gets married to someone who's a brother to someone who is a mother. The father's sister gets married to a mother's brother. Two people from the same generation, with their own pre-established familial relationships, get married.
Phew, that was a lot haha. Sabrina words it in such an intricate way that it sounds like it's all coming from the same family tree, but rather, Sabrina's referring to multiple family trees and discussing how people can be defined by the relationships they have with others. There's a deeper meaning to her lyric here. She's pointing out that all of these people have different relationships to others that are core parts of their identities, such as the brother having a sister with children (the brother of a mother), and the father being "a son who has a mother." We're all defined by our relationships to each other, and sometimes those relationships interconnect to create new non-familial relationships. Then, those non-familial relationships occasionally become so close that they become familial relationships, which in turn can lead to "all just trying to multiply with one another" (in other words, having children). Through this, the cycle continues on and on. That's what Sabrina is referring to with this confusing family tree lyric, at least in my humble opinion.
I can't think of a better way to end this article than to link you to this sentiment about Sabrina, also from Ash's reaction video haha.
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