Wedding Day

Wedding Day

Friday, May 23, 2014

Strange Baby Songs (Week 8)

So my daughter loves to be sung to.  She loves music so much that I have it ready on my iphone for her to listen to.  In fact it will calm her down from a complete meltdown or cry fest.  This could have been beause I sang to her all the time when she was in the womb, who knows?  Any way I have been looking for and using some standard classic baby songs and simply singing some modern songs to her.
Some of these baby songs seem to have some wierd messages that they (or try to) convey.  So if I destroy your beloved children's song I'm sorry.  Actually no these are kinda weird.

Here are my top 3:

1.  Hush Little Baby
Okay this is a classic, but I can't bring myself to sing this song.  Mainly because it is a bribe song for babies.
 "Hush Little Baby Don't say a word, papa's going to buy you a mockingbird..."
First of all I can't have pets, especially a bird flapping around the house.  Plus, since it is a baby or toddler we are singing to couldn't we have worked our way up to something?  I feel jumping right to a bird we as parents have left little room for practical things.

"And if that mockingbird don't sing, papas going to buy you a diamond ring..."
Now this is where the song gets ridiculous as I feel this is sort of an extreme jump----going straight from birds to expensive jewelry??  Diamonds??  How about cubic zirconium?  COnflict free diamonds?  Why bother asking...YOU'RE A BABY!  My baby would be content if I bedazzled my jeans and walked around (which I will not do) rather than want a diamond ring.

You know the rest of the song.  The title to this song really be called " I Will Do Anything to Get You to Be Quiet and Sleep"  This must have been written by a desperate parent or maybe parents with a colic baby.  From my experience bribing a baby is like praying for the toilet to not get clogged (and it does anyway).  

2. Itsy Bitsy Spider
Okay I think this song was simply written to show perseverance or stupidity.  The spider goes up the spout, the rain comes, washes the spider off, the sun comes and he/she tries again.  Dude, spider pick something else to waste your day on?

3.  Rock A Bye Baby
Okay probably one of the creepiest baby songs I think I've heard.  Bribery for a kid to sleep/ a persistent spider okay, but what is this song?



Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Funny thing is many have tried to explain this song (and doesn't help its case of being weird):

1. Native Americans used to put their babies in trees and let the wind rock them to sleep. (Why does it always have to be the Native Americans, huh?  Either way proven not to be related)

2. A woman in England with her husband and 8 children actually lived in a tree. (What is this Swiss Family Robinson or a character from Harry Potter?  Also proven not to be related)

Anyway this song is creepy. I mean I don't like heights and rocking my baby to sleep in a tree top, well that tree better be seven feet tall or lower.  The wind blowing, sure you are up in a tree who doesn't enjoy that?  Probably a baby in a cradle about to face plant to the ground!  That escalated quickly!

SInging these songs reminds me when someone is bopping along to a song and then they find out what the lyrics are saying and are like "what in the world?"  I started off excited to use some of these songs then went: whoa calm down crazy song.  Anyway, we've decided to stick to more modern songs (our daughter seems to be in love with Owl City.)  She also likes songs from Mary Poppins (Chim Chimeree), some classical stuff and then the collection of random songs I have for her (Bath time is Here, Drop It Like It's Hot, You're My Baby).

If you have any strange baby songs that I may have missed let me know.

The End~

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