Rock a bye baby on the tree top…when the wind blows the cradle will fall
Down will come baby cradle and all…Omg omg omg!
Why would you sing such a negative lullaby to your baby? And
then they grow up you sing:Jack and Jill went the hill…Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after…
Or Humpty dumpty sat on a wall…had a great fallAnd no one could put the dude together again!
why so many negative images? Can’t we rhyme happy rhymes?
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
There's one theory that "Ring Around the Rosies" is based upon the Black Plague. And I find lullaby music to be creepy...it gives you this feeling impending doom...perfect for horror movies.
Could it be that.....since kids are attracted to morbid things.....that it helps them learn the nursery rhymes better? But then again...many of these rhymes date back to a more puritanical time period where there were harsher consequences for disobedience in general and rules were enforced in a more scarier way.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
^ rock a bye baby is about some plague/doom thing too... you're right about ring around the roses.
stick to the itsy bitsy spider, i say. at least he climbs back up the spout!
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
I loved singing this rhymes when I was young and now my kids love singing them too. These classic rhymes are just to build up kids' vocabulary, they don't really pay attention to the meaning.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
You know I was thinking about this the other day too, here are a few more that I noticed ......
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;
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed
I think a lot of these were written in times where social and economic conditions meant that people (kids) died young or were sick and the children weren't sheltered from the harsh reality so they came up with rhymes to make it easier on the kids.
Either way they're dark and depressing...I mean when now that I really think about " its raining its pouring" its a little mrbid.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
Niki , seriously looks like These rhymes were composed during some great depression. 
I never paid attention to what they say , paid attention to rhyming word , but not on the message they carry.
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I guess we all start to pay more attention to these when we are actually singing/reading them to our kids.
My daughter loves her nursery rhymes book and I was thinking the same the other day.
I was reading 'Peter,Peter pumpkin eater ..had a wife and could not keep her' and then something like that he put her in a pumpkin and then it was all good...it does not even make sense...!!
then there is poor Jack and Jill...and Humpty dumpty and so on...
Some of them dont make sense and some are pretty depressing...!
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
I think Jack and Jill has a very good message behind it. 'Boys, run carefully!'
I loves this one
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
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
ba ba black sheep is a happy one and so is twinkle twinkle ..
i even find little miss muffet a bit disturbing ! :p
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
ba ba black sheep is a happy one and so is twinkle twinkle ..
i even find little miss muffet a bit disturbing ! :p
In the UK we are not allowed to sing 'baa baa black sheep' anymore as it is considered 'racist'
It is now 'Baa baa sheep sheep'
Nursery rhymes, counting rhymes and what have you are to develop language skills in toddlers. They don't actually have nightmares about a 'humpty dumpty' (whatever one of those is) falling and breaking into millions of peices. They are learning new words and how to use them in a fun way.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
In the UK we are not allowed to sing 'baa baa black sheep' anymore as it is considered 'racist'
It is now 'Baa baa sheep sheep'
Nursery rhymes, counting rhymes and what have you are to develop language skills in toddlers. They don't actually have nightmares about a 'humpty dumpty' (whatever one of those is) falling and breaking into millions of peices. They are learning new words and how to use them in a fun way.
That's rubbish though. The implication was that a black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was therefore worthless. Why do people have to make everything have something to do with racism? Its pretty depressing.
And word to the nursery rhymes. Stop getting disturbed Ammas of GS! They're just words and interesting words at that. I for one loved them, I still remember :(
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That's rubbish though. The implication was that a black sheep had wool that could not be dyed and was therefore worthless. Why do people have to make everything have something to do with racism? Its pretty depressing.
And word to the nursery rhymes. Stop getting disturbed Ammas of GS! They're just words and interesting words at that. I for one loved them, I still remember :(
I still sing it as the original, they can't fire me, im brown, I can sing what I want! hehe.
I have no idea who and why and when it was decided but I remember a lunchtime staffroom discussion about it 2 years ago.
Schools in bradford banned the reading of any stories with pigs in them! It wasn't even the moslems who asked for the ban, the white peoples thought they were being 'considerate'.
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I used to call some of my Kaala friends ‘My niggas’ and they’d call me ‘Nigga’ too. I think its the brown that confused them. I do think sometimes we get away with more because well, brown people suffered/still suffer a lot of racism in a lot of places. Although we’re a lot better than the Blacks.
Ugh, don’t ask questions?! Just obey?! BS! More exclamation marks 
Hahaha that’s rubbish! So the kids don’t know who the ‘Three Little Pigs’ were? 
But he huffed and he puffed!
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There are few other some people might find odd like "Georgie pordgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry..."
"Tell tale tit, your tongue shall be slit and All the Dogs in the Town Shall Have a Little Bit "
"there was an old woman who swallowed a fly....perhaps she'll die"
"hey diddle diddle.....the dish ran away with the spoon"
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Here's something interesting I read. The rhyme
Mary Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row
is a possible references to Bloody Mary....who executed many people for not follwing the Catholic faith. The "garden" could possibly be a reference to the graveyard and it's increasing "population" and the guillotine was also called a "maid." Silver bells and cockle shells could refer to instruments of torture....the former being a thumbscrew and the latter was used for the genitals. Creepy.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
You see what I'm saying people you see!
:D
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
Here's something interesting I read. The rhyme
Mary Mary, quite contrary How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row
is a possible references to** Bloody Mary....who executed many people for not follwing the Catholic faith. The "garden" could possibly be a reference to the graveyard and it's increasing "population" and the guillotine was also called a "maid." Silver bells and cockle shells could refer to instruments of torture....the former being a thumbscrew and the latter was used for the genitals**. Creepy.
OMG! This is exactly what the 3 year olds in my school's nursery said!
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
yeah in year 5.. or 4? we had a really dreary teacher who taught us most of the subliminal messages behind nursery rhymes. i don't remember em anymore :(
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
OMG! This is exactly what the 3 year olds in my school's nursery said!
The little kids obviously wouldn't know about the meanings to the rhymes, but it comes as sort of a shock to us when we find out about it, LOL.
Milly, maybe I'm wrong, but i sense a sort of hostility from you when you respond to my posts (either directly or indirectly)...and I've nothing against you. It is Ramzan and I'm not immune to making mistakes, so if i've offended you in any way (and I may not have been aware of it), I apologize.
Re: Horrible nursery rhymes!
Nana Gaye Dilli
Dilli Se Laye Billi
Billi Ne Diye Duo Bacchay
Allah Mian Sacchay.
See, such a good rhyme. :)