A Grimm Reminder: Tales from the Crib
I often stumble upon news articles lamenting that children witness too much violence on TV. I’m not here to argue whether that’s true or not, but I do think the authors of those articles are hypocrites. I mean, children have always been exposed to traumatizing amounts of violence. Why start caring now?
Exhibit A:
“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.”
What kind of sicko dreams up putting a baby in a tree and letting the wind play havoc? Surprisingly, this literal death threat has been around since 1765, and yet parents happily serenade their little ones with it, wearing grins like it’s all sunshine and rainbows.
I mean, close your eyes and actually envision what this nursery rhyme is saying. I imagine Jigsaw from the Saw movies rubbing his hands in glee, waiting for the cradle’s bough to snap. And in the background, Rob Zombie is belting out “Let the Babies Hit the Floor.”
What the hell did the baby ever do, anyway? It’s not like he deserved this horrible treatment. What crimes can a person commit at five months? Pooping in a diaper isn’t frowned upon until you’re at least thirty.
And did you know “Rock-A-Bye Baby” is touted as one of the first poems ever written on American soil? Well, sheesh. That was quite the promising start for the country.
But let’s get back to the point. Long before TV shows and video games were scarring children, we had Mother Goose, or as I like to call her, Murderer Goose.
Murderer Goose is also the mastermind behind classics like “Jack and Jill.” You know, the one where Jack severely injures his head and Jill spasms uncontrollably while plummeting to her death.
And then there’s “Humpty Dumpty.” The main character, the hero, takes a tumble off a wall, and bam! His innards go splat all over the King’s men. No little kid should be subjected to this. It’s cruel, and besides, the pain sounds egg-cruciating.
We’ve been force-feeding our children a diet of violence since birth. Maybe we should slap a legal disclaimer on these tales, just for laughs. How about: “Hansel and Gretel: Rated C for Cannibalism.”
All jokes aside, violence has been part of children’s lives for quite some time now. Television, ironically, might be the only opportunity for kids to see any happiness at all.
117 Comments
Maria
Hwy Justin! Sorry it took so long to reply, with Christmas and New Year I've been so flat out.
I would love advertising on your site but I'm currently unemployed and blew too much money on advertising what semi fell through!
I love the new layout! Amazing, as usual 🙂
xox Maria
Thao
It's kind of like how in music, people just sing along sometimes and they don't even know what the hell it's saying. One time, when my husband was not my husband, but just a boyfriend, he sang me a lovely melody… but it was a breakup song. He just thought the melody was nice. The poems, in essence, are the same thing. People are stupid and violent visuals seem to have more of an effect which is probably why they care more… or their panties are in a bunch.
Demi.
Thank you 🙂
Its treated me well so far, how about yourself?
Its so true what you say about the rhymes. I never thought about it like that.
I love your layout by the way, it's pretty cool 🙂
Deanna
It's true what you say. In one of my English text books you will find a lot more children's stories from the past that talk about gruesome murders and deaths. But I think the problem with today's youth is that sometimes their parents don't teach them the difference between a story and reality. They think what they see if real life and go out to imitate it and then we get all kinds of societal problems.
Nancy
School hasn`t officially started yet. Yesterday, I just went to school for the camp thing I had to do. :} a field trip during vacation. :o!
Nancy
Oooh, just want to be in it :P. Still, good luck& have fun 😀
I`ll get the homework done 🙂 2 page report on a scientist 🙂 &then copy the notes into my notebook. 😛
Nancy
Good luck with the audition& Hope you get that part you want :D. I`m not doing much besides checking what`s new on facebook. Then maybe finishing up my homework. 🙂
Nancy
It kinda was. It`s all cool. 🙂
Nancy
Mmm, spaghetti… Love them! Yesterday during lunch, I had fries, bacon& rice. haha. Not much choices yesterday :/. &sushi for dinner. Which made my teeth hurt… :(.
Shannon
LOL You are absolutely right! You really touched on some good points, especially with the little lullabies. I thought I was the only one who noticed it. Just like "Ring Around The Rosy" was actually a song created by the Plague and the song is about death, but little children walk around singing it all of the time.
Nancy
I just paid 65 cents because of the over limit ;P. Last summer during mentor camp, it was a buffet without a limit! I guess we got carried away 😉
Tiffany
Ahh, thank you for your compliments on my photographs 🙂 'The one with the pink' is actually of an Australian native plant I think it's called a banksia. No idea, but it's Australian native. xD
Ahh Charles Darwin. Gotta thank his theory of evolution. Science applies everywhere 😮
Nancy
Yup, that too. I blame the teacher for always making us read books without doing any proper critical analysis. I did poorly because of her :).
But that was like. 8 months ago. Blegh,
Nancy
I wouldn`t know what else there is. I already turned in everything& did every work, so yeah :O! But I still have fault in it too 🙂
Nancy
My english teacher from 9th grade (last year) found one of my old blogs. &in the end, she gave me a C for the class on how much crap I wrote about her. Well, technically, I didn`t say crap about her :/. It was more like, "In English, it was so boring. I`m not even learning anything much this year… I`ll know why my state test scores for english is low this year." And stuff :O! though it`s true! Haha.
JV is probably… Well, I would consider the one`s in the office or in the health department :).
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