Thursday, November 28, 2013

Horrific Nursery Rhymes

There comes a time in every parent's life when they feel this pressure to sing their children nursery rhymes. We are literally the only source of entertainment for our children and we are solely responsible for their development. So, the pressure is ON folks.

When they stare straight at us, it just gets too quiet. You start to perspire and worry that your child will not learn if you don't starting singing. Now.

So, I tried to find good-feeling sing a longs that can bring value to my child. I knew that I would come across some nursery rhymes that have those really freaky historical origins like "Ring Around the Rosy" and the plague. What I didn't realize is practically all of the freaking songs are bad.

We all know Jack and Jill. I never understood the point of the song. Why would my kid care if Jack falls down and breaks his crown? It's kind of depressing.  Then I found out that it's about King Louis  Number whatever, and Queen Marie Antoinette.  The guy didn't just lose his crown, he was beheaded. So was the chick. Jesus.

Then there was Humpty Dumpty which was actually a cannon used in a civil war, and don't get me started on three blind mice. Even if you did not know the origin of three blind mice, why would you want to sing to your kid "they all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife." I can just picture myself almost bursting into tears as I try to read that to my kid.

I think I might just stick to Dr. Seuss. Not sure how I will break it down to Hasouni when we read "Green Eggs and Ham" that we actually can't eat ham, even though the entire story is about encouraging the character to eat it. Maybe I'll just skip that one. WOW, this is going to be harder than I thought.


Xoxo,

Oum Hassan.

PS:

Sorry about taking so long this time. I just found out that Hasouni is allergic to a lotttt of things which was causing him eczema. Ever since I stopped having dairy products in my diet, such as milk, eggs, yoghurt, etc... his eczema has improved, alhamdouAllah. So, if your child is suffering from eczema, I'd recommend getting an allergy test done for him. I also found out he is allergic to peanuts, so I have been clearing the house to make it a nut-free environment. However, his parents are still pretty nutty themselves*! Or as we arabs say, akhbal. Sorry Hasouni, can't do anything about that ;)




*Sorry, I try not to use cliches on my blog, but I couldn't help myself.



1 comment:

  1. When I first started singing songs with Sam, I couldn't remember many nursery rhymes, but The Ants Go Marching was stuck in the deep recesses of my brain. Unfortunately I couldn't remember the details, so I made up rhymes for the numbers... so our ants go marching like this... The ants went marching 3 by 3, the little stopped to look for the key. The ants went marching 4 by 4, the little one stopped to study the law. The ants went marching 7 by 7, the little one stopped to dance with Bevan. The ants went marching 10 by 10, the little one stopped to play with Ben. Now it has become a challenge for me to find new, crazy things to rhyme with numbers. My kids will be the screwed up ones at pre-school!

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