A lullaby is a soothing song sung to children before they go to sleep. The idea is that the song sung by a familiar voice will lull the child to sleep.
Being a conscientious mother, I feel it is my duty to hunt around for new lullabies to hum to my babies. Some of my babies love it, others don't. In fact, DD and DS1 prefer to sing and hum their own. Truly! One time I tried to offer my lullaby services, my son unceremoniously slapped his hand over my mouth and squeezed my lips shut. He was 8 months old. Point delivered!
I also deliver spontaneous performances on nursery rhymes. It makes my baby giggle and I impressed myself with how much I remember. In fact, the other day, I found that they "Twinkle, twinkle little star, ABC Song, and Baa, Baa black Sheep" have the same melody. Really. I played it and hum it along to Mozart's fancy composition on x-number of variations of the Twinkle, Twinkle tune.
I was at my pediatrician the other day with DH (darling husband) when I saw this free magazine called Playing with your baby published by Enfamil.
I was amused and horrified to find out that some of the lullabies I am familiar with do not bring up cozy and comfy picture, like this one
Ring a-round the roses,Or this one
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, Falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
Take a key and lock her up,
Lock her up, Lock her up.
Take a key and lock her up,
My fair lady.
What about this one below? The Simpsons cartoon did a wonderful job with this one below.
"Good Night" Airdate: 04/19/87
As Marge and Homer say goodnight to the kids,
Bart philosophically ponders the workings of the mind; Lisa hears Marge say, "Don't let the bedbugs bite," and fears that the bedbugs will eat her; Maggie listens to Marge sing "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" and is traumatized by the lyrics.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
I sing this aloud to my babies. Now I wonder if this is one of the reasons why they'd jumped out of their cribs as soon as they could.
2 comments:
You know...
That "ring around the rosy" lullabye comes from the days of the Black Plague. True story.
Ring around the rosy (refers to the circular rash one would get at the outste of Bubonic Plague.)
Pocket full of Posies (was a folk remedy which supposedly protected one from the Plague. They would put posies in the pockets of corpses as well.)
Ashes, ashes (the funeral pyres.)
We all fall down--(1/3 of the population of Europe dies.)
Goodnight children.
www.crashtestcomic.com
Makes you wonder what the newer lullaby should be.
What about...
Sleep, sleep, sleep sleepy head
Sleep, sleep, sleep snuggle in your bed
Duck under when shots are heard
Duck under if you want to live!
Makes you wonder who started singing to their children about disaster!
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