When Lilly was quite little I bought her a CD of nursery rhymes and would play it while we were in the house playing with toys or doing tummy time etc.
When I went back to work the nursery rhymes moved into the car and we listened to the same CD on the way to and from nursery and on any other big trips in the car, like when we went to see Grannie.
Hubby couldn’t stand the nursery rhyme CD, it got on his nerves, but it didn’t bother me so much – and it was so gorgeous when Lilly started to sing along – at first just joining in with the last line of each song then progressing to singing all the words!
But after a while the novelty of one CD wore off and I decided to buy another one to expand our nursery rhyme repetoire. So I bought a different CD from the same BBC series.
I must admit this one gets on my nerves a bit, especially the way the singers try to sing in “authentic” cockney / Bristolian / northern accents when they feel it appropriate. Plus, they go rather overboard on the “zany sound effects”.
But most of all, I find some of the more traditional rhymes a bit disturbing and I’m not quite sure if they’re the sort of thing I should be playing to my innocent little 2-year-old. For example:
“Goosey Goosey Gander” – contains the line “There I met an old man who wouldn’t say his prayers / so I took him by the left leg, and threw him down the stairs”
“Who killed cock robin” – rather gruesome tail asking “Who killed Cock Robin”, “Who saw him die?”
“Ding Dong Bell, Pussy’s in the well” – horrible boy tries to “drown” a cat
Unfortunately, Lilly already loves this CD and sings along - even to these rather nasty ones above. I’m thinking of producing an edited version of the CD, i.e. make a new playlist on iTtunes and take out some of the ones I find a bit disturbing.
I only introduced nursery rhymes because I thought they were an essential part of childhood – and yes, Lilly really loves them all. But I’m starting to think there is certainly an argument for some of the old ones to be consigned to history – or some slightly more “PC” versions to be brought in.
Unless I’m being overprotective?
I don’t like the full version of Oranges and Lemons – “Here comes the candle to light you to bed, here comes the chopper to chop off you head!”
There are some others too, that Ben doesn’t like and used to ask me to fast forward to, but I forget which ones now.
But no, you are not alone x
Do know what you mean. Finlay loves singing ‘see saw Marjory daw’ in the park but it’s a song that’s basically about slavery. Ring o roses is also macabre because it’s about the black death and it’s raining it’s pouring ends with the man banging his head, having a sub arach and not getting up again. They’re not great but as long as we continue to teach the difference between right and wrong and answer their questions I think our kids will be ok x