AIBU to not understand the appeal of Wind the Bobbin up?

[Greengage1983]

As in the nursery rhyme. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the Wind the Bobbin up. It’s fine. I have fond memories of singing it myself as a child.

But. I have 2 young children, and we have now lived in 3 separate towns in different parts of the country, and attended dozens of different baby and toddler groups, library singalong sessions, nurseries etc. over the years, and it seems like there are loads of very old traditional nursery rhymes from my childhood (in the early 90s) that seem to have dropped off in popularity that I never hear anymore, which have been replaced by more modern songs, while Wind the Bobbin Up seems to appear at Every. Single. Session. Of Every. Single. Group. Why that song in particular? Do children even know what a bobbin is? Why not, say, Sing a Song of Sixpence, which I don’t think I’ve heard once at a group? Or ring a ring o’ roses - great fun to dance in a circle? Or oranges and lemons - exciting with the arches and the “chop off your head” bit. Or the Hokey Cokey, which was so much fun but I hardly ever hear these days? Can anyone explain what Wind the Bobbin Up has that other traditional nursery rhymes don’t? Also feel free to mention any nursery rhymes from your own childhood that you never hear anymore.

YABU - wind the bobbin up is better than other nursery rhymes and it’s perfectly understandable that it has stuck around when others have not. OR, I have not noticed this phenomenon.

YANBU - I have noticed this, and I don’t understand it either.

Wind the Bobbin Up was a staple when DD (11) was a baby/toddler, but I don't remember it at all when I was little. I guess because we're in London, whereas I expect it originates in the North of England, where the cotton mills were?

Heads, Shoulders, knees and toes and One Finger, One Thumb, were two of my favourites as a kid, and I sang them to DD a lot when she was a baby/toddler, but they rarely featured at baby music group/church group/rhyme time at the library. I always wondered why, as they were a fun way to teach them where said body parts are.

This post is why I am on Mumsnet. It speaks to a profound human truth.

I am 57 years old. I never sang "Bobbin" as a child. Never even heard of it. Wasn't on Play School or Rainbow or my Ed "Stewpot" Stuart nursery rhyme albums. Wasn't sung at school or playgroup or Brownies.

Cut to:

25 years ago. My first Mother and Baby groups. "Bobbin" is on heavy rotation everywhere. Nursery. Jo Jingles. Nursery rhyme VHSs. CBeebies. Nick Jr.

And it sounds so old. Historic. Like it has always been around. Like everyone should know it.

Whyyyyyyy!!!???

I bloody loved Wind the Bobbin Up. My DC has a learning disability and some motor issues so I’ve probably thought about this more than most but it’s got everything in it for very young children. Crossing the mid-line! Coordinating 2 hands! Clapping! Pointing is a whole thing - isolating one finger, using it to communicate, shared attention (ie getting an adult to focus on the thing you’re focusing on), relating objects to words… We used to change the “point to the window” bit with anything else we could see so it taught vocabulary too.

It’s a corker.

I'm 57 and still have books of nursery rhymes. Watched "handful of songs" on itv, "play school ' and "play away" on BBC and have never heard of it....

Sing it in the style of Sid Viscous and you’ll learn to love it.

I’m sure there is an updated version where they get put to bed instead

I agree, it almost had cult following. I'd never heard of it until I went to baby groups with my DD and everyone looked like I had two heads when I confessed i didn't know it.

Worse was going to a group and about to sing the pirate song (sorry can't remember the title) but the original is "a bottle of rum to fill my tum, that's the life for me". The leader requested we change rum to milk when singing so not to encourage alcohol use on our impressionable 3 month olds. I did a small act of rebellion that day 🤣🥃

I remember singing it with my little sister when we were kids. We're mid 40s now and grew up in Leeds.

Never had trouble finding a ceiling and a floor. The ceiling is the up one and the floor is the down one.

Toddlers can't do things in a group so hokey pokey (as we call it here) is more advanced. Many nursery rhymes are just wordy with not enough actions. In a group of 3 yr olds there will be a few struggling with speech and feel they can't join in. Wind the bobbin up has elements they already know and can do, point and clap, count 123. And the winding bit is really fun for them, I'm not sure why. It's the perfect introduction song with a new group.

I’ve never heard of it.

A whole generation of children now know what a ceiling is instead of calling it a roof.

It teaches children fine motor skills, hand eye coordination and to follow instructions which are appropriate things to learn at that age.

Agreed. “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” is brilliant with a big bounce on “ Oo ray and up she rises”.
I hated wind the bobbin .?Assumed it was American as not a song we ever had - but down south.

I think Wind the Bobbin Up is a banger, we never used to sing it when I was little. It’s the sleeping bunnies one I can’t stand.

A lot of the old rhymes and stuff are dying out. Somebody could probably make a killing doing a baby group based around resurrecting weird old nursery rhymes and performing them with finger puppets or something.

It’s called When I Was One and is a rip-roaring treat. I enjoy hurling mine about to it, but I can never remember the rhyming words in the verses so I end up making bits up like ‘when I was 3 I did a wee’

I assumed it came from the mill towns in the north but Wikipedia claims it originated in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_the_Bobbin_Up

Oh my word, don’t get me started on that pirate one! I remember singing it in reception class in primary school when it was “a bottle of rum to fill my tum”, complete with actions. But it seems there are a few American versions on YouTube that change the lyrics to omit the rum, and they seem to have caught on amongst the leaders of toddler groups this side of the pond. 🙄 They also usually omit the line reference to the “Irish sea”. So annoying.

Wind the Bobbin and The Grand Old Duke of York are much better than some of your other examples because:
a) they have actions that children enjoy and start copying
b) you do the actions on your own, no mass participation like dancing round with everyone else.

My kids are now teens and that song still haunts me. Takes me straight back to sitting on cold, sandy floors surrounded by runny-nosed children.
(I do like children and other nursery rhymes)

I absolutely cannot stand Wind the Bobbin Up. Sheer awfulness, wind it up, clap a bit, wind it back again, over and over and over and over. Aaargghh.

Way back when mine were tiny this little piggy had a veggie sausage roll, rather than roast beef. I really didn’t understand that one!

It is great for gross motor (which leads to fine motor)

the winding forward and back - is quite skilled to achieve

A bit like row row row your boat - great for 'knowing where you bend'

My Health Visitor was adamant that if I sang Wind The Bobbin Up to DC1 enough (with the actions) it would solve his speech delay.

It didn't, and I still hate the song.

My middle child (now 21) used to love wind the bobbin up. She would literally fall over laughing at it when we used finding it in musical playtime. She still remembers liking it but can’t remember why she found it so funny!

I think it’s popular for these 3 reasons:

It doesn’t (so far as I know) have any of the darker connotations of some of the other nursery rhymes.

It has very simple actions that ca be performed sitting down with a child on your lap.

The actual word “bobbin” sounds nice and is easy to say. In fact I suspect it was the word bobbin itself that made DD2 laugh so much as it was when we said it that fell about laughing.

Handful of songs! Wow forgot this!
and a vinyl album of nursery rhymes with I think, teddies and dolls, maybe humpty on the cover