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from my childhood (in the early 90s) that seem to have dropped off in popularity that I never hear anymore, which have been replaced by more modern songs, while Wind the Bobbin Up seems to appear at Every.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.

Lack of knowledge, imagination or creativity ? I used to go to a group and the singing sounded like grinding gears getting going.
I innocent tried to bring in a nursery ryhme book one one and got hard stares.

Its rather annoying

No mention of Incey wincey spider yet?
Another good one for sitting down and doing hand actions.

Definitely. I can not stand it!!

Dirge

YANBU I had never heard it until my kids were small. To me it sounds like two completely different nursery rhymes welded uncomfortably together and the random pointing is absolute BS.

Yes! It’s very strange when you put it that way 😂

I had never heard that stupid song until my eldest was a toddler ( she's now 13)

Pooooool pooool cyap cyap cyap. What’s not to love!

Just coming on to this thread to thank the OP for putting this song in my head 😂

I think it’s the actions.

can anyone explain the grip Shark in the Park on a Windy Day has on story times? The way they produce it every time as if it is exciting and new and fun and I want to bang my head on the floor. How does every single librarian and bookshop owner choose it every blinking time????

It beats The Wheels On The Bus and Sleeping Bunnies/Lions.

I used to hate this song! I heard it first when taking DD to baby groups (13 years ago) never knew it from my own childhood. Tbf she loved it but god knows why it’s awful

I was told wind the bobbin up, was a song taught to children, so they learned to get out of the way of the huge carpet presses so they didn’t become part of the pattern and parents had their child’s wages docked as the carpet factory owners were pissed that a squashed child ruined a carpet and cost them money.
“Point to the windows point to the door,
point to the ceiling point to the floor” in other word run from window side to door side of picking up the fluff off the carpet, and run before the huge presser comes down.
I don’t know how true it is, but if it is true, it’s pretty grim. (Song being true, I know plenty of young children died picking fluff up off the carpets).

It’s very catchy I love it. Also you get lots of actions and movement.

I remember doing the bobbin one it at nursery in the 1980s. It’s silly and harmless. How about these?

Susi had a baby, she called him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.
He drank all the water, he ate all the soap.

Where were the bloody social services?

Piggy on the railway, picking up stones.
Along came and engine and broke Piggy’s bones.
Oh said Piggy, that’s not fair.
Oh said the engine driver, I don’t care!

Actions have consequences.

?? 🤔

I have to say I don’t remember that version! The version I know was always quite hard on the knees though, what with all the crouching down and standing up again.

Totally with you on this one.

When we had DS we lived in a different part of the country to the one in which I grew up and I'd never heard it before. It was my least favourite rhyme - and like you say, it was at every single group. It's a rubbish rhyme.

You are my type of people!

My kids are in their 30s and I don’t remember it featuring at any of their playgroups, but all my DGC know it from their nurseries.

Somebody with 4 teenagers. This thread is a pure joy of remembrance of simpler as times!

Yes, they like the actions and it seemed the most popular at a lot of groups I went to before school (though I bet few of the kids would now be able to say what a bobbin is, so I get it isn't the most relevant language). Miss Polly got annoying, because people would go on about whether he should be back in the morning with his "bill bill bill", or if she was still "ill ill ill" and them have a discussion about how the doctor used to come to your house any time you were sick. Every. Single. Time.

If it’s proper old school nursery rhymes you want, and I do, check out the Real Nursery Rhyme Project. They’ve recorded an album of the classics with an orchestra instead of naff versions with cheap sounding instrumentation.

i set a lot of importance in all the old fashioned nursery rhymes. I think so many of them are so beautiful. Little Boy Blue, Jack and Jill, Lavender’s Blue, and folks songs too like the Skye Boat Song. I’ve spent hours singing these to my children helped by a vintage Nursery Rhyme book from a charity shop and the memories of my own childhood.

I cannot recall WTBU at all. What do primary school children sing in assembly.these days? Is the 'Come and Praise' book still around?

Anyone remember this:

You have toddler on one knee, holding both hands.

'This is the way the ladies ride - trit trot trit trot (bouncing knee slowly)
This is the way the gentlemen ride - clip clop clip clop (bouncing slightly faster)
This is the way the young boys ride - canter canter canter canter (bouncing faster)
This is the way the racers ride - gallop gallop gallop (bounce fast as you can till toddler falls off in a heap of giggles)

That's "ladies go nimble nimble" to me. And rather than racers, "but the post boy goes........ <dramatic pause> GALLOPY GALLOPY GALLOPY DOWWWWWWN intotheditch"