Everyone who has been around one or more infants for any length of time knows that at times they aren't so cute. Be it cholic or cholera, there are times when they just won't stop crying despite all efforts by one or both parents. In order to salvage a shred of sanity in the unfortunate tending parent someone came up with the sanity saving lullaby.
As an example, when my siblings and I were infants, my Grandmother (who has been called eccentric by more astute people than myself) would sing us this particularly menacing lullaby:
Old black sheepie, where's your lamb?
Way down yonder in the valley--
The buzzards and the butterflies
are picking out it's eyes--
and the poor little thing cries
Mammy--
(sing sweetly and endlessly until child grows up with a sense of humor like
Steven King or goes to sleep)
I was listening to NPR sunday night to a show that was talking about this wonderful stress relieving lullaby technique. One particular lullaby that was sung caught my ear. I don't know if it was sung to me as a child or not, but it seemed somehow familliar. Here it is:
This is the day
that we give away
little babies.
They come free
in a half pound of tea...
if you know any ladies
that want any babies
just send them around to me.
When they take off the lid
out comes the kid
with a written guarantee.
This is the day
that we give away
little babies.
I don't know if I have the words exactly right, but I've been singing it to myself all week and thought I should share this with some of you parents out there.
NPR on Sunday nights can be a riot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Just recently, the girls had a friend over and asked me to sing "that terrible sheep lullaby". They love it in some weird way.
I guess this lullaby technique is akin to me sweetly crooning to Blossom that her next stop is the dogfood factory. As long as I use the right tone, she finds it very soothing (evil grin).
You may find it interesting that MY grandmother sang the "Ol' Black Sheepy" song to me when I was a little girl. She told me that HER grandmother sang it to her. So we know of at least 7 generations that have soothed their wailing babies with it! Wonder how much further back it goes? Love you! M
Lovely songs...
Do butterflies really pick out eyes? If so, maybe we'll stop getting caterpillars in my classroom to watch turn into butterflies. I don't want to get sued...
T
Babies love the macabre.
Post a Comment