My Mom sang Rock-a-bye baby to us, but I was always troubled by the bough breaking and the cradle falling with the baby in it. So I never sang that one very much to our babies. Why unnecessarily traumatize them if you can avoid it?
When my grandfather walked the floor with fussy babies, he sang a song from his childhood about a heroic railroad engineer, Casey Jones. Although he remembered the tune, he had evidently forgotten most of the words, so he replaced them with nonsense syllables. So his lullaby went thus:
Casey Jones, badoodle doodle doodle.
Casey Jones, badoodle doodle doo.
Casey Jones, badoodle doodle doodle.
And a hi-de-hiddle and a hi-de-ho.
So what difference do babies know anyway? (The real lyrics are here.) When my children were babies, I sang Casey Jones to them, using my grandfather's lyrics, of course. With my daughter, I interspersed a song that I composed:
Daddy's precious girl, Daddy's precious girl,
Daddy's precious girl, yes her is.
Daddy's precious girl, Daddy's precious girl,
Daddy's precious girl her is, be-dooba-de-boop.
My wife hated it, because she's a school teacher and the song is grammatically incorrect. (My daughter has a degree in journalism and is a professional copywriter who uses flawless grammar, so I don't suppose my lullaby scarred her too badly).
When my granddaughter Maizie was born, I tried singing Casey Jones to her, but it just didn't sound right. And morphing Daddy's Precious Girl to Papa's Precious Girl didn't feel right either. So I composed a new song for Maizie:
Papa loves his baby girl friend.
Papa loves his baby girl.
He's plum crazy about his Maizie,
'Cause she's the cutest one in all the world.
Papa loves his baby girl friend.
Papa loves his baby girl.
There could never be another one like she,
Papa loves his Maizie girl!
Bad grammar seems to be a theme with my lullabies. My daughter likes this one, except after I've sung it 20+ times in a row. Maizie loves it--even when repeated ad nauseum--except for the one time I sang it for the video camera. She was screaming her head off by the time I reached the end of the song.
What about you? What songs do you sing to your little ones? What songs were sung to you? Have you made up any lullabies? If you have, would you share the words with us?
About Me
- Mark
- Child of God. Currently serving in the roles of husband, father, grandfather, minister, walking Rolodex® of mostly useless information, and private pilot.
7 comments:
I never did Rockabye Baby for the same reason. I did sing You Are My Sunshine, but the "you'll never know, dear, how much I love you" part bothered me, so my kids all think it goes "I'll always tell you how much I love you". But I mostly make up songs on the spot. We also did Goodnight ______ to the tune of Goodnight Ladies from The Music Man.
My mom made up lullabies for all four of her children. (I still remember mine and will remind my mom from time to time by singing it loudly.)When my children were born, I made up a lullaby for both of them.
That is a great gift from Grandpa Mark!
Jill S.
You are my sunshine and twinkle twinkle little star were our faves. When he was two and started trying to sing along we would act out rock a bye baby and I would pretend that the cradle did fall. He loved it!!!
I've got a couple of comments... First: why did I get screwed with just one nonsensical (aforementioned "ba-doodle-doodle-do") and my sister got the whole "Daddy's precious girl"? Uh-huh, that's right, staunch favoritism.
Now on to Maizie’s new song: my first issue is with the use of the term, “girlfriend” in reference to one’s grand-daughter. Every time my dad said/sang the world “girlfriend” referencing Maizie over the holidays I cringed a little. There’s the obvious reason that the term girlfriend is usually referencing a female individual with whom a male individual is romantically involved. But I also get this whole ebonics vibe - like you’re trying to imitate The Parkers or some reality TV show on UPN or the WB. I’m surprised you didn’t call her your little home-girl.
My second issue is with the term, “Papa”. Perhaps for the rest of your readers a bit of a back story should be included. My grandparents on my mother’s side were known to all of the grandchildren as “Mamaw” and “Papaw”. I have learned over the years that this is a fairly common grandparent name. The grandparents on my father’s (and venerable writer of this blog) were known by all as, I kid you not, “Meemaw” and “Peepaw”. Now, my parents decided long before Maizie (the first grandchild) came along that they would break with this special grandparent naming family tradition, and go by the monikers of “Nana” and “Papa”. I don’t know where they got the idea that they should take on these names. Perhaps they have some sort of infatuation with eastern European culture. Perhaps they were watching "Heidi" when they learned that they would be grandparents. I honestly can’t imagine why they came up these names in blatant disregard to our familial naming convention. I mean, why not go by "Babka" and "Grand-Papa" and force the grandchildren to use a slavic accent?
I propose that they return to tradition by adopting the names “Moomaw” and “Poopaw”. I grew up with a “Peepaw”. “Poopaw” is just continuing the tradition. They may be able to brainwash Maizie, but if I ever have children you can rest assured that they will know their grandparents according to family tradition – “Moomaw and Poopaw”.
And a hi-de-hiddle and a hi-de-ho. Alan.
Well, you asked for it!
I was able to stay home when my first-born was a baby, but had to return to work after son number two was born. It killed me to drive him to the babysitter each day, so to make myself feel better I sang him this song, hoping that the song (and my love) would stay with him until I was with him again.
Dustin's Mommy's sweet little boy,
Yes, he is her pride and joy,
Dustin's Mommy's sweet little boy,
Yes, he is.
Chorus:
He's my sweet boy, he's Mommy's pride and joy.
He's my sweet boy, he's Mommy's pride and joy.
God gave Dustin to be my boy,
To be my precious baby boy,
God gave Dustin to be my boy,
Yes, he did.
Chorus, then first verse again.
It just long enough to get us to the babysitter's house. :-)
She do agrees. Bad grammer in lullybyes duz not leed to dum kids. Her is smarts, her is.
i know i'm a little late in replying to this request, but imma gonna do it anyways...
my mother says that she attributes at least some of the differences in personalities between me and my brother to the cradle songs she sang to us. My brother always got the Kris Kristofersson version of "me and bobby mcgee" to quote "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..." and i always got the ever-meaningful "amazing grace". I don't know if the theory holds any water, but it just may.
another issue that may contribute to our outcome as people may be that all songs sung by my mother sounded strikingly like "old mcdonald" to quote..."amazing grace how sweet the sound, e-i-e-i-oooo!"
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