It is time to go to sleep, you have already had dinner, you are already bathed, with your clean pajamas, it smells like that tender smell of a relaxed and calm baby. Imagine the scene, we take him in his arms, we lull him, we rock him in his room in the middle of the light and we hum a lullaby to sleep ... little by little ... in a low voice ... we begin to sing (each one according to our possibilities) "... go to sleep now ... if not the coconut will eat you ..." But who is the handsome man who sleeps with such a perspective?
It is clear that children's songs have a dark side, very dark and it is also very clear that our children when they are babies fall asleep because they trust us but above all because they still don't understand us!
Today we put on the glasses to scrutinize and wrap ourselves with all the sense of humor that we have more at hand, today we will be especially sensitive to the letters of the nannies, of the lullabies, of those sound sleeping pills that we use so that our children sleep peacefully and already put on, also let us sleep as a side effect. I guess you will have noticed but there are some that give more sleep they take it away!
But we are not going to stay only in them, Since we start to dissect we can also do the rest of children's songs with which we played and now our children play.
Sleeping with threats
Evenings in some cases but threats after all. The coconut is not so veiled, it is quite evident ...
"Go to sleep, go to sleep or the coconut will come and it will eat you ..."
I imagine that the author thought that at that point the baby would squeeze the eyes with great force to fall asleep as soon as it will not be that the coconut gave it to appear and zapársela a bite.
If we make claims when choosing the lullaby (I did it, I recognize it ...) with lyrics by Víctor Jara, Mercedes Sosa follows this same line.
"And if the black man doesn't sleep, the white devil comes and zas, he eats his leg ..."
I do not say I had no reason to write that letter but of course the child falls asleep with fear of "Devil" Well man, I do not see fit. If then we continue with the lyrics and see how that poor mother is, everyone's dream is taken away and rightly so.
Or the lullaby of the little pigs reminiscent of the story of the three little pigs and the wolf but in this case it is rather the selfishness of the older pigs in front of the little piggy than what he wants is ...
“A cute and courteous piglet, that dreamed of working and being able to help his poor mom”
We tie them to reality before the poor get their teeth out with this letter and also, few better things to take our sleep off at this time than the issue of work. It seems that we want them to sleep but have no dreams, the poor. Luckily they are babies and do not understand us because more than one would ask us for explanations and with reason!
I imagine one of my children, when they were babies, taking the pacifier out of their mouth and telling me with a serious face:
- "Hey mom, do you really want me to sleep after the anguish you created for me with this story you just sang to me?"
Not only babysitters take sleep
No, do not forget the songs of children's games, which are supposed to be fun, to entertain, to interact with friends. Like the one that says
"... we will eat salad what the gentlemen, oranges and lemons eat ..."
and that obviously makes clear the social and economic inequality of an era, in which "El corro de la patata" began to sing
But the height of the absurd comes from the hand of Mambrú, yes, surely you know the story of this poor character who went to war and died in it.
That Mambru has already died,
What a pain, what a pain, what a mess!
that Mambru has already died,
They take him to bury.
Do-re-mi, do-re-fa,
They take him to bury.
In between, we talk about a page's suit, the velvet of the box where they will bury him and the pain of the news. I do not know a happy letter is not that way, at first glance, right? However, there are many generations that have played singing it when we were girls.
Well, for girls there is even more ...
What I was telling you before is not only the lullabies, being a bit critical of the most traditional songs of some children's games, especially played by girls mostly we find "Tremendous jewels". Surely you hear what the famous boatman said when he passed the boat, yes that
“Pretty girls don't pay money”
the famous boatman of the song said, because he has a macho tufillo that does not coincide much with an equal education that we want to give our daughters for example.
Or maybe you remember to the captain of the English ship who is a promiscuous and boasts of it
"I am captain of an English ship
and in each port I have a woman,
the blonde is phenomenal
and the brunette is not bad either "
Or also the song that begins with "Rice pudding ..." and talks about marriage with a hardworking girl ...
that knows how to knit
that knows how to embroider
that knows how to make the stockings
for a captain
And the height of undisguised machismo is that with which previous generations of girls, mainly girls, learned the days of the week through the history of that poor girl who before lunch wanted to go to play but could not do it any day of the week because I had to iron, wash, sew, cook, tend ...
Thursday before lunch
a girl went to play
but could not play
why did I have to cook
But how can we explain this?
They are just some examples of obvious machismo and yes I agree that they are very old, they are from another era, things were not lived before as now, they are traditional songs ... but they are there, they are still heard in the schoolyards and Girls keep singing. With only one of those girls considering what these lyrics are normal, it is already too much.
You see that today we were going to need a lot of sense of humor and perhaps it is not too much to think about renewing the soundtrack of some of the games of our sons and daughters, such as those we have been reviewing.
Photos | iStockphoto
In Babies and more | The wise balance between current toys and traditional games | Ten lullabies to sleep your baby |
