Rub a dub dub ; Three men in a tub - Huh, What?

As my toddler son is growing up, I have realized that he loves music ever more or actually he always did. I have introduced him to a wide range of different kinds of  musical nursery rhymes. Furthermore, besides listening to nursery rhymes he enjoys shaking a leg or two, to their tunes too. Like him, I am also learning these new rhymes which I might have never known otherwise. While many of the rhymes are his favorites, like “Wheels on the bus go round and round”, however there are several which neither he understands nor I.

In majority of cultures and traditions, nursery rhymes portray children’s stanzas and songs that are vocally passed down from one age group to another. However, many times I wonder that many of the most famous children nursery rhymes are time and again tremendously violent and fierce in nature, bursting with narratives of suffering and grief, and frequently comprise of quite upsetting, tragic and sad finales?

Three blind mice, three blind mice,

See how they run, see how they run,

They all ran after the farmer's wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a thing in your life,

As three blind mice?

A threesome of ill-fated rodents on a task to discover where the hell they landed, ultimately bump into an aged woman who turns out to be expert in axing small helpless animals to pieces?  That’s certainly not entertaining and is rather disquieting.

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie

Kissed the girls and made them cry

When the boys came out to play

Georgie Porgie ran away

Georgie Porgie , as per the poem , seems like a rebellious lad. He tries to befriend the girls by kissing them randomly, which would eventually make those young girls cry. But, when the other boys also step out to play, Georgie Porgie runs away to make a quick exit.  What a spoilt brat he must’ve been. Or I’d say he was a stalker!I just wish Georgie Porgie has a good attorney to back him, for he has some grave trouble with harassment.

Goosey Goosey Gander, whither shall I wander?

Upstairs and downstairs and in my Lady's chamber.

There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,

So I took him by his left leg and threw him down the stairs.

The urban traveler intruding into several ladies’ rooms and hurling their companions down the stairs for being religiously unreliable. That isn’t funny at all. That’s autocratic and unruly and extremely vehement.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the King's Horses and all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty is yet another very popular nursery rhyme that regrettably concludes with a tragic fall. Humpty Dumpty (a snooping egg-like character) tumbles down from the dividing wall that he was sitting on. What’s strange was that nobody, including the king’s menfolk could repair the unlucky wrecked Humpty Dumpty –who is caught in middle of a freak mishap.

There was an old woman,

Who lived in a shoe;

She had so many children,

She didn’t know what to do.

She gave them some broth,

Without any bread;

She whipped them all soundly,

And sent them to bed.

Oh, that’s simply divine. As if it isn’t awful enough that this dysfunctional family is residing jam-packed together inside a shoe for a house. One would ponder if odor control would be adequate of a matter, to deal with, but also birth control should to be added to that list.  Not to forget child exploitation too.

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds,

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing;

Wasn't that a dainty dish,

To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,

Counting out his money;

The queen was in the parlour,

Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes;

When down came a blackbird

And pecked off her nose.

Okay. So a few blackbirds were baked in a pie to serve it to the King. And when they were served to the King, they all begin to sing? That’s grotesque. And as if that wasn’t enough, the blackbirds, after getting baked and cooked, they also pecked off the maid’s nose.  That doesn’t leave me with a very good feeling about birds, at the end of it.

Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop,

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

Down will come baby, cradle and all.

Fundamentally – Goodnight  -my  baby, enjoy your peacefull slumber for as long as you can,  for you'll be falling from a tree very soon!

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Btw, yes. I do know that most of these rhymes purportedly have a history behind them, but then, that doesn’t take away their creepiness from them.  Although, my son enjoys listening all of them, but given to his inquisitive nature, I’d dread his asking me why Mary decided to carry her lamb to the school?  Or in the rhyme Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub – what are these three men doing in a tub together. That certainly doesn’t belong to children’s rhyme now.

Are there any rhymes that make you scratch your head in perplexity too?

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Disclaimer: This post in no way recommends parents to deny their kids access to melodious rhymes and songs. It’s just a fun post recommended only for whinnying about rhymes amongst ourselves