Since becoming a parent I have become familiar with many nursery ryhmes and I have to say, I’m shocked at how sinister many of them are. Is it any wonder Zara wakes up crying in the night when I sing songs like this to her!

Take for instance the classic – Rock a Bye Baby. Ah a lovely nursery ryhme to sing whilst rocking your baby off to the land of slumber I hear you say – Wrong!!

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

I mean let’s examine this innocent ryhme more carefully. Firstly who in their right mind would leave their baby in a tree top (well unless you are a bird I suppose and that is acceptable – but still risky I might add!). And what on earth inspired the crazy parents to put it up there in the first place. I mean, were they just out for a nice country walk and saw a big tree and decided “oooh that looks a suitable place to leave my darling child to sleep!”. Why on earth do we sing this song to our cute little babies, do they fall asleep with visions of a crib falling down out of a tree and a poor baby falling to the ground with mulitple fractures, probably ending up in a wheelchair as a result?  Hmm I think I’ll strike this one off my evening repertoire.

OK so what about Ring-a-Ring o’Rosies. Ah another lovely sweet song, how can our little darlings not love this one. Again – Wrong, it’s actually almost sick this one.

Ring-a-Ring o’Rosies
A Pocket full of Posies
“A-tishoo! A-tishoo!”
We all fall Down!

For those of you which aren’t lucky enough to be married to a history teach like me, this ryhme is actually singing about the Black Death / Bubonic Plague. Oh how lovely, maybe we should also sing songs about Swine Flu, Malaria and other mass killers to our little darlings.
Ring-a-Ring o’Rosies refers to the rosy red rash in the shape of a ring that you would get on your skin as one of the symptoms of the plague. Oh how lovely, lets sing about the fact you’re probably going to die!
A pocket full of posies relates to the belief that the disease was caused by bad smells and carrying a posy of nice smelling herbs in your pocket would ward it off.
A-tishoo, A-tishoo – that will be the violent sneezing that was another symptom of the disease. Lovely, death is imminent, keep singing.
We all fall down – yep, you’re dead!
Oh what a lovely sweet ryhme to sing to your little baby as you lovingly try to send them to sleep.

I really think I’m onto something here, maybe the reason for sleepless nights has nothing to do with being hungry, etc etc, it’s just that we are terrifying the little sweethearts and giving them nightmares!