When I became a parent, I discovered the joy of sleepless nights and trying to put a child down for a nap. Becoming desperate, I would do whatever it took to get my child to sleep. So I started humming and discovered that music, or my version of it, does indeed soothe the savage beast. I then began to incorporate nursery rhymes into my nightly karaoke routine, figuring if I knew the words I could stretch the song out longer and in theory, have a better chance of putting my child to sleep.
That’s when it hit me. One night during my usual sleep-deprived solo singing routine I stopped, the words dying in my throat. What the hell did I just sing to my daughter? Did I mix up the lyrics? Possibly. I very slowly went through them and stopped again. Who wrote this and why is it a kid’s song? The revelation of the horrors of nursery rhymes made me switch to singing old eighties heavy metal. (I know all the bad lyrics so I changed them when necessary).
How many years have we been quietly been traumatizing our kids with some of this stuff? The more I investigated, the more I became confused. I asked my mother about this and she simply stated that people have been singing these songs to their kids for years. That was of course, more disturbing to hear and no answer at all. Maybe there was a hidden meaning in these songs, or maybe I was reading too much into it but I needed to know.
There is a common thread connecting these horrific rhymes and that is the catchy tunes that are associated with them. If you go back and read through each one, I’m sure you will catch yourself humming or speaking them in song as you recite the words.
Some of these have been around for a few hundred years, taken from songs and ballads sang for adult entertainment. I have no idea how they morphed their way into the world of children, but they have and continue to get passed down from generation to generation.
Rock-a-bye-Baby
Let’s start with the classic “Rock-a-bye-Baby.”
Rock-a-bye baby
on the tree top.
When the wind blows
the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall.
And down will come Baby,
Cradle and all.
The working theory here is that hundreds of years ago, Native American women would hang their children from a tree in a birch bark cradle, allowing them to work and keeping them safe from predators. However, as the rhyme also suggests, many times this backfired, as the wind would break the branches and the cradle would crash to the ground…baby and all.
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
It is generally thought that this rhyme is well, nothing good. Mental and physical abuse of children, lack of proper food…a nightmare all around.
Three Blind Mice
Let’s not forget about “Three Blind Mice.”
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
One theory has this written variation describing three Protestant loyalists, who after plotting against Queen Mary and refusing to renounce their beliefs were promptly executed.
Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
Here’s another charmer to make you think…
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn’t keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.
It is thought the wife this rhyme is referring to is actually a prostitute and because the husband couldn’t stop her from having sexual trysts with many men. So, he killed her and hid her body in an extremely large pumpkin. Yikes.
Alouette
Alouette, gentille alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.
Je te plumerai la tête. Je te plumerai la tête.
Et la tête! Et la tête!
Alouette! Alouette!
A-a-a-ah.
Translation:
Lark, nice lark,
Lark, I will pluck you.
I will pluck your head. I will pluck your head.
And your head! And your head!
Lark! Lark!
O-o-o-oh.
It is suggested this song’s origins go back over three hundred years, where there was little else to do during the long and cold Canadian winters working the fur trade. One theory also suggests this song was sung by French Canadian soldiers, who then taught it to other Allied soldiers in the trenches during WWI, and who then taught it to their children, and so on.
The funny thing is, I really don’t hear these rhymes anymore. I don’t hear kids sing them or any hint of them written down in any books my daughter brings home. Maybe a new generation of teachers has changed their repertoire of songs and rhymes, but saying that, maybe the new songs are just updated versions of these wonderful little goodies…or completely new abominations?
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