Ok, so I make up (ridiculous) songs for my daughter on a regular basis. They're mostly context-dependent and put to standard tunes and rhythms.
For example, her favorite one at the moment is entitled "Stinker Poo." (Here's where I prove my unyielding pit of humility.) It's to the tune of "Little Bunny Foo Foo" if you remember that one...
My little stinker poo
Had a lot of poo to do.
Poo to do?
Poo to do.
Little stinker poo.
My mother refuses to sing this verse to her because she finds it disgusting which I suppose I can understand to some extent. But by comparison to some of the usual ones, I don't think it's so bad!
Think of the song about the violent struggle of a small spider. An odd protagonist to begin with, but this poor Itsy Bitsy Spider never perserveres. This poor insect, it just keeps climbing up a water spout, getting washed back down by rain, and then climbing up again. This tragic tale is just one big loop of misery. Simple determined spider. You'd think for a childrens' rhyme, he would eventually get to his destination with the moral of the story being "never give up"...but no. It just keeps raining at inconvenient times in this song.
"You Are My Sunshine" starts out well enough, but then ends with a disturbing plea. "Please don't take my Sunshine away..." What's up with THAT story? CYA? A disease? All in the "nightmares" category.
Then we have to really consider what we sing to these kids as lullabies. "Rock A Bye Baby" has a cradle falling from a broken tree limb. "...and down will come baby, cradle and all..." First of all, who put the cradle in the tree? Secondly, why? Thirdly, why would we put this sick incident to soft music and retell it to our children while they drift off to sleep?!
Little Bunny Foo Foo has a violent head-bopping fairy, The Little Piggies is a tale of haves and have nots, I'm a Little Teapot is the appliance equivalent of "Snookie" from Jersey Shore complete with stature and whiny demands, and don't even get me started on Ring Around the Rosie.
So really, when you think about it, Stinker Poo isn't so bad. In fact, it's one of the few things that doesn't have a hidden meaning, tragedy, or bloodshed.
I think most people would choose a song about a graphic to do list anyway.
Unedited ramblings of an Almost-30 Liberal Humanist Employed New Mother.
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4 comments:
you know.. My Little Sunshine was my lullaby when I was a little girl. my mom loves to tell the story of how I'd say "when ki kar kay" instead of skies are gray. but I'll have you know on top of the fact that I couldn't get through the song singing it to Jackson without crying and figured it wasn't helping him stop - I really started listening to the words and was a little taken back. and how about that 2nd verse?? so we now sing I'm a Little Angel..and I make up silly songs like you when I'm tired of Old MacDonald. :)
If you think that's hard, try reading The Giving Tree!
I'm in the same spot as Kara. You are My Sunshine is what my mom sang to me, so I sing it to Liam. But, the first several times I sang it, I cried myself! "I dreamed I held you in my arms, When I awoke dear I was mistaken, so I hung my head and I cried"! What???? I will NEVER be mistaken... he will ALWAYS be in my arms when I awake!!!!
I don't even think I know the rest of the verses to that-- but clearly, it just gets worse!
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