What happened to nursery rhymes?

Question

I was listening to a tape of my daughters the other day, and it had a song about oranges and lemons. In it the chopper comes to chop of your head. Ahhhh!, how is this appropriate to be teaching a child.

Answer 1

Nursery rhymes are hugely important for children's early language acquisition. Most young children are plonked in front of TVs now and not talked to, and it has a huge negative impact on their speech and vocabulary.

Answer 2

Thats a really old one isnt it-i remember that-same as the old stories were things like the wolf eating red riding hoods nan etc...how did we ever grow up sane!!!

Now a days new songs are about aliens in flying saucers, monkeys bouncing on the bed etc. And books have happy endings with no violence hehehe!

Answer 3

these nursery rhymes are donkeys years old and never did anyone any harm - my children and grandchildren all learnt them and they are normal kids my newest grandson aged 4 months will learn them as well

Answer 4

I was never frightened by the 'Oranges and lemons' nursery rhyme. We used to play a game at children's parties. Two would make an arch and the rest would walk under the arch as we all sang the rhyme. If you happened to be unlucky enough to go under the arch when they got to the line 'And here comes a chopper to chop of her head? (possibly Mary Queen of Scots) you were eliminated. Another version of 'musical chairs.'

If you really want to know about Nursery Rhymes, try The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'. The compilers Iona and Peter Opie also wrote a book about children's games, their origins and meanings. Fascinating.

If you think nursery rhymes are scary, try the Grimm borthers' fairy tales!

You must have missed out on nursery rhymes.

I remember my godmother reciting to me:

'The other day upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

I wish that he would go away.

It didn't worry me - but then I lived in a haunted house.

Answer 5

they were great, but they havent kept up with the times.

Mary had a little lamb

Its fleece was white as snow

and everywhere that mary went,

she kicked middleaged men to death....

Answer 6

its humpty dumpty's fault... he got rude, he pushed his gf off the wall cuz he wanted to see her crack!

Answer 7

The majourity of nursery rhymes are dark if you actually listen to the lyrics. they are meant to teach children to cope with these sinister things. they have to learn it somewhere

Answer 8

Unfortunately,many of our traditional rhymes are blood thirsty and are based on tradgedy e.g. ring a ring a roses, london bridge is falling down, humpty dumpty etc.

Pre schoolers these days tend to be hit with the none less trendy Wind the bobbin up, or Wheels on the bus, 5 little ducks or ten fat sausages. Yes it is about time we thought up a few new ones, and let the old ones die along with the black death. Twinkle Twinkle little star however will live forever along with insy wincy spider and baa baa black sheep. Teach your children these and they will find happiness.

Answer 9

Thats the way the rhyme goes, its been around for years!!!

I remember singing and acting it out at school, and you had to link hands and kids had to walk underneath, then when you got to that part of the ryhme you chopped to see who would lose.

My Daughter loves her nursury ryhmes, without them, we wouldnt get them to sleep at night!!!!

Answer 10

Nursery rhymes are like that.

Ring a ring a roses is about a load of people dying from the plague.

Humpty Dumpty is about a man who fell from a wall and broke himself.

Rock a bye baby has a baby crashing to the ground from the top of a tree.

Nursery rhymes tend to either be violent or surreal (the dish ran away with the spoon, etc)

Mary had a little lamb,

she tied it to a pylon.

12 thousand volts went up its bum,

and turned its wool to nylon.

Answer 11

they went to h**l in a hand basket with the rest of the world