Babys First Year Blog
What Nursery Rhymes and Jersey Shore Have in Common
To a tiny baby (and to dogs, let’s be honest) it doesn’t really matter what you say to them, it’s how you say it. If I tell Vivi she’s about to get four shots with the same inflection as I would tell a dog I’m about to lay down a juicy steak for his chops only, she’s not going to be any wiser to what’s about to happen. “My mom! She’s making that squeaky voice again!” *flail flail smile smile*
With a six year old in my house I have to watch out what media shows up in front of her VERY OBSERVANT EYES. But when Addie’s at school? I’ve been known to recap the latest episode of Toddlers and Tiaras as well as recap the concert I went to where DJ Pauly D from Jersey Shore opened for Britney Spears to Vivi. (Complete with baby fist pumping.)
When Addie gets home it’s back to nursery rhymes and fairy tales. But have you ever *really* read some of these nursery rhymes we have been reciting for generations? Some of them are downright…barbaric.
Most everyone knows that “Ring a Round the Rosie” is rumored to be a song about the black plague. Nothing says “GO TO SLEEP LITTLE ONE!” like a good plague song. Don’t even get me started on the whole “rock a bye baby you’re about to fall out of a tree from these gale force winds” song.
The more you look into the history behind nursery rhymes the stranger their meaning becomes. There’s rumor that London Bridge is an obscure reference to Vikings burning bridges and burying children in foundations. Or there’s rumor that Baa Baa Black Sheep has something to do with slave trading and taxes. I’ve always been a little wary of the pumpkin eater who kept his wife very well in a pumpkin shell, look, I’ve seen what carved pumpkins can become after a few weeks and there’s nothing very well or good about any of it.
Come to think of it, Project Runway recaps may not be such a bad idea in comparison to some of these so called “nursery rhymes.” We have a book in our house called Monster Goose. Instead of Mistress Mary having silver bells and cockle shells she has cabbages waiting to eat her.
Needless to say, the next time I tell Vivi about the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead? I’m going to follow it with the tale of the little girl in the beauty pageant with fake curls, fake teeth and a fake tan and how her mom will never ever be participating in such madness.
Any nursery rhyme conspiracies you’d like to share?
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5 Things You Should Know about Sharks | our health life commented on Sep 01 11 at 7:50 pm@JustHeather commented on Sep 01 11 at 1:28 pmIt truly doesn’t matter what you read or say to babies, so long as they get to hear your voice. We were young and in college when our oldest was born. The hubby used to read his incredibly boring, totally geeky computer science text books to her. Outloud. I fell asleep. She was enthralled.
Lisa commented on Sep 01 11 at 3:31 pmI love “Rub a dub dub Three men in a tub” – Makes me giggle every time
Georgie Porgie has a sexual deviant
I doubt there is anyone who is ok with the old woman who lived in a shoe, who smacks all her kids soundly…..
Cynthia commented on Sep 01 11 at 3:44 pmOmg, I know exactly what you mean! I loved Shel Silverstein poems when I was little, so when I found out I was pregnant, I picked up two of his poetry collection books. It wasn’t until I sat down and started reading them that I realized just how ‘adult’ the content really was! The little boy and the old man who are both lonely? Check. The little girl who died because she didn’t get her pony? Check. Or even a play on Rock A By Baby where the last line is “Baby, I think someone’s got it out for you.”
Definately gonna have to do some explaining if we share these with our little boy when he gets older!
Stefanie commented on Sep 01 11 at 3:57 pmOh man, my mom and dad used to sing this song to us as kids, the “Crocodile song.” It went something like this:
A lady rode away on a lovely summers day on the back of a crocodile.
You see said she, he’s as tame as he can be, I’ll ride him down the nile.
Well the croc winked his eye as the lady waved goodbye, wearing a happy smile.
At the end of the ride, the lady was inside. And the smile was on the crocodile.Thanks, parents! We pretty much stick to Skinna-marinky-dinky-dink and the wheels on the bus in our house.
@hleatherton commented on Sep 01 11 at 5:12 pmI was just talking to my husband about how some of the nursery rhymes we loved as a kid weren’t so warm and fuzzy after all. I obviously wasn’t bothered by them when I was small and my son probably won’t be either. But just to be safe, the two that I generally skip when reading to my 2.5 year old are “There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe” and “Goosey, Goosey, Gander”. The poor woman with too many kids basically starves them, then “whips them all soundly and puts them to bed”? Yikes! And in Goosey, he met a man who wouldn’t say his prayers so he “grabbed him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs”? There may be some tough life lessons my kid needs to learn, but at two, I think it’s okay to still pump him full of rainbows and unicorns.
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