My son was crying and I didn't know what to do to calm him. I tried talking to him, bouncing him on my knee, and swinging him in my arms. Nothing seemed to work.
I felt a song coming on. Rock-A-Bye Baby was all that came to mind, and slowly the lyrics started coming back to me from memory. Jen had to help me out with the last line, but we finally remembered it all:
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.
What kind of sick, twisted song is that?! Why on Earth do people soothe their baby with a song about a baby falling to their death out of a tree? And if the fall wasn't enough to kill the little one, then the impact of the cradle following right behind is sure to finish them off!
But still, it worked like a charm. He stopped crying and enjoyed my singing! Thankfully he isn't yet able to comprehend the meaning of it, otherwise he might have nightmares about falling.
No kidding about that song being dark! I have never sung it to Kisa because it still creeps me out. Other songs that still haunt me from my childhood: Hush little baby (it bothered me that everything kept breaking), There's a hole in my bucket (I was very depressed they had encountered a problem with no solution and would probably die of thirst) and Sweet Molly Malone (it's about a girl who dies and her ghost wheels a wheelbarrow down the streets of Dublin).
ReplyDeleteIt is very strange the songs that we deem appropriate to sing to our children!
Yeah...I've thought about this nursery rhyme, too. Sheeesh. :) I found this website...didn't read it...but you should...and let me know if it has some good info!
ReplyDeleteLove ya, bro.
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/rock_a_bye_baby.htm
Anna
@Ciara- Yeah, good point about all of the songs being a little weird. Yikes.
ReplyDelete@Anna- Very interesting. I did read up on the history a little bit. Pretty creative that the Native Americans supposedly used the trees and the wind to rock their baby.