I did not think through my song choices very well with Kinsey, and as a result, I am stuck singing “Day-O” about 3x per day on average. I introduced a David Crowder Song at bedtime, and that one works only at bedtime. Then, a couple weeks ago, Bryant and I started singing “Down by the Bay” in the car as we were driving across town, and our multi-part “repeat after me” rendition seemed to work quite nicely. However, now there are only two songs that will postpone a carseat freakout, and both of them do not make any sense. So let’s just talk about this horrible children’s songs for a minute.
Day-O:
Why can they only pick the bananas at night? Who is the tally man? How can he tally the bananas if its night time? How do they see? I do not understand.
Down by the Bay:
Explain to me why this mother is so horrible? Is she psychotic? Is that why she tells her kid crazy things if they come back home? What kind of mother tells her kids that they can’t come home? And, I hardly think that a child returning home is so outrageous that we have to compare it to a bear combing his hair, or a moose kissing a goose. Am I right?!
Additionally, sometimes, in the evenings, I put on Raffi to entertain Kinsey while I’m cooking dinner. For some reason, she is happy listening to him sing all of the songs. I am partial to Banana Phone, because its pretty catchy. But, when we first started this music in the evenings routine, the song “Joshua Giraffe” came on, and I could not believe my ears. A song, about a giraffe, who’s mother, again, is terrible. Joshua has lived in the zoo for two years, and he hasn’t had a bathe. The song says it is because his mother will not lick him. And then, it talks about how sad he is that he is stuck in a zoo, and he escapes to the Congo at some point, and then gets trapped again…I don’t really know, but this song is forbidden in our household now. It reflects poorly on Joshua’s mother for one, and two, I don’t want Kinsey to be asking me about jail breaking animals every time we go to the zoo.
I believe there is a market for better children’s songs. But, that’s just my opinion.
