Why are nursery rhymes so violent?

Every night that I put my 2 year-old to sleep, I look forward to a really sweet time of hugs, laughs, kisses and singing. My songs consists of those that are short, easy to sing and hopefully, easy to remember so one day, she’ll sing them with me. But seriously, have you considered the content in nursery rhymes?

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.

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

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

All sad and violent endings to otherwise great beginnings.

Does anybody else wonder why we sing these songs to our kids?

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About Kyle Chowning

Entrepreneur/owner ROOTS Academy, executive director Help-Portrait, Christ-follower, dad & husband to Kristy. Former marketing director RELEVANT magazine & SVP of marketing at Halogen TV & INSP TV

  • http://www.meandmygoodlife.blogspot.com Angie

    I just wonder why we always think Humpty is an egg. No egg reference in the rhyme.

    Seems like ol' Mother Goose was just constantly stitching somebody up.

  • http://www.agatha-k.com/ Agatha

    I hope I don’t sound like a curmudgeon here, But I have a similar experience that your blog post made me think of. The other day I watched the original Snow White movie. It was the first movie I ever saw as a 7 year old girl and I was excited to watch it now as a 33 year old adult. And I have to say it was kind of scary and violent, especially when the queen sent her servant to chop out Snow White’s heart. YIKES! I’m not sure I would want a 7 year old watching that.

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