What songs do you sing to your children?

[angrypixie]

For some strange reason I have sung 'When a knight won his spurs' an old school assembly song to each of them when they were babies whilst they were having their last bottle and cuddle before bed.

I get requests for Puff the Magic Dragon when they are tired or sad, and I have been known to do that Seekers Classic 'Morning town ride'.

My 6 year old daughter likes a burst of 'She's so love-er-ly' Scouting for Girls (I think) at breakfast.

So tell me your guilty secrets and/or inspire me.

Traditional faves are - Morningtown Ride, Ally Bally, Waltzing Matilda, You are my Sunshine, Molly Malone & suchlike but for some reason The Wild Side of Life always used to soothe DD1 most & Dt's seem quite fond of The Gambler & Blackboard of my Heart.

My fave is Big Girls by Mika

big girls you are beautiful...i used to sing to my ds Big boy you are beautiful and dance around with him when he was tiny. That song will always remind me of the early days...Loving the puff lyrics...been a while since i sang that, would love to hear it again.

my DS loves i see you baby shaking that ass...only we replace it with bottom, it is also used as a motivational tune, when he doesnt want to do something, i see you baby, washing your face etc. he calls it the shake your bum song.
loving the YMCA version of getting dressed... i think i may try that one.
also he loves in my liverpool home, as well as bob the bulider, heads shoulders knees and toes, the usual.
i love it when i hear something i havent in a while so i will be singing all the oldies tomorrow.

There's no way I'll remember them all, but here are some

Ally Bally Bee (never heard it til we moved up here - we love it)
Wheels on the Bus
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Hushabye Mountain (from CCBB)
Nelly the Elephant
A Windmill in Old Amsterdam
The Teddybear's Picnic
Cows in the Kitchen
Twinkle twinkle, Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa, Grand Old Duke, etc. etc.

And I remember When a Knight Won His Spurs btw - I love that song.

-Wiggly woo
-The Teddy bear song
-Waltzing Matilda
-Teddy bears Picnic
-Jamaica farewell
-Bannana Splits Theme tune
-Agadoo
-Waltzin Matilda
-Spiderman Theme tune
-Not sure of the name but is a song about noah ark and why there are no unicorns
-Mud mud glorious Mud

and of course Puff the Magic Dragon

DS2's current favourites are This Old Man, I Saw Three Ships and Cruella De Ville. He will accept no alternatives .

DS1: Money Money Money and I Like To Move It

Lili Marlene

Morningtown Ride

Little Boxes

Melancholy baby

All the above are good for bedtime.

Below are good at non-bedtimes (eg in the car):

The Gasman Cometh

Lobachevsky

I fear we may be odd, though.

'Stop! Nappy time!' in the style of MC Hammer

For bathtime, the final song on Cream's Disraeli Gears, 'A Mother's Lament'.

Really cock-er-ney, now:

"A one, a two, a free, a four...

A muvver was washing her baiby one night,
The youngest of ten and a delicate mite.
The muvver was poor and the baiby was thin,
'Twas naught but an skelington covered with skin.

The muvver turned 'round for a soap off the rack.
She was only a moment but when she turned back
Her baby had gorn, and in anguish she cried,
"Oh, where 'as my baby gone?" The angels replied:

Oh, your baby has gone down the plug'ole.
Oh, your baby has gone down the plug.
The poor little thing was so skinny and thin,
He should 'ave been washed in a jug (in a jug!)

Your baiby is perfictly 'appy;
He won't need a bath anymore.
He's a-muckin' about, with the angels above,
Not lorst, but gorn, before.

I thought of all of you singing to your children in homes all around the world, when my wee one woke at 1.30am. Following the folk route I decided to branch out into Ralph McTell (sp?) but got half way through 'Streets of London'

So how can you tell me you're lo-oh-nley
And say for you that the sun don't shine.....

And I was weeping onto his head

Well, I was very tired!

I normally sing ds1 Where Is Love (from Oliver), Summertime, Lavender's Blue, Que Sera Sera or Twinkle Twinkle.

Then a month ago, dh bought home this monstrosity of a Wii game called Guitar Hero, which they play every weekend, and the other night as I began trilling Summertime, ds1 piped up, "Not that one, Mummy. Do you know Love Removal Machine?"

I do not

I'm noticing these more now. To the Stingray theme tune, when noses need wiping:

"Snotbags! Snotbags - da da da da da da"

OOOhhh I'd forgotten all about Molly Malone ...

and now her ghost wheels her barrow
down streets broad and narrow
crying cockles and mussels
alive alive oh!

used to send shivers up my spine as a child...lovely though ....

Like the OP, I also do "When a Knight won his spurs" and also "Puff the Magic Dragon" (With made up verse at the end to ensure a happy ending).

Also sing the Skye Boat song to ds when he cries and Lavender's Blue to dd - referred to by her as the "dilly dilly song".

From time to time we also do Lily the Pink and Mamma's gonna buy you a Mocking Bird (with many, many made up verses).

We do mocking bird at night and also the one from Cbeebies - "the time has come to say goodnight, to say sleep tight till the morning light...." Me & DH do it in our best kids tv presenter voices while we get DS into his sleeping bag and turn lights off etc.

During the day, all sorts, favs dingle dangle, wind the bobbin, twinkle.. 13 month old DS just getting the hang of actions and his little hands doing twinkles is officially his cutest trick

BTW just cried at desk to puff lyrics....

I sometimes worry that DD will be terribly disappointed later in life when she realises that most people don't actually spontaneously burst into song most of the time ...ones we sing which haven't been mentioned (I think) are:

My grandfather's clock
I'm Hen-er-y the 8th I am I am
Never Smile at a Crocodile
On top of Old Smokey (corrupted to "on top of spaghetti")
Dashing away with the smoothing iron
Charlie is my darlin'

Most things from Oklahoma, South Pacific, Sound of Music, Calamity Jane, Paint Your Wagon, the Mikado etc get routinely butchered too.

A whole host by Paul Robeson, including:
My curly headed baby
Shortening Bread
Lindy Lou
Fat lil' fella with his Mammy's eyes

Vote for song I can't sing without blubbing like a baby is "Baby Mine, Don't You Cry" from Dumbo, which Dumbo's mother sings when they have been separated

So many good songs on here... and I think all the ones we sing are mentioned somewhere...

plus The Owl and the Pussycat which she adores and
Suitors
Barges
Land of the Silver Birch

Oh yes... you can tell I was a girl guide

Lots of the above, especially Skye Boat Song (but with 'carry the lass who's born to be queen' cos we are all lassies here!)

And this for car journeys and general cheering-up:

There once was a Lavender Cowboy
With only three hairs on his chest.
He rode a young filly
Called Daffer-down-dilly,
The purdiest horse in the West

Each morning they rode out together,
the ranch hands looked on in dismay.
He'd round up the cattle
Whilst riding side saddle
Because he preferred it that way

Oh one day that Lavender Cowboy
Commited a terrible sin.
One night on a bender
He slugged the bartender
And stole all the strawberry gin

A possee was sent out to find him
To capture him dead or alive.
They knew as they went
They were hot on the scent
By the smell of Chanel No. 5

Oh they found the Lavender Cowboy
With blood running over his chin
But when they got closer
Well, waddya know sir
They found it was strawberry gin.

So they shot the Lavender Cowboy
And said as they laid him to rest:
'Just look at him now, boys,
He's never a cowboy
With only three hairs on his chest.'

I used to sing a gentle lilting version of
I love you love,
You love me too love,
I love you love me love

etc and i knew all the verses.

That was for ds1. By the time ds2 was born dp had realised its a very old Gary Glitter song and I was banned from singing it.

So our current repertoir of mummy songs:

Your're my little choochy-face (I think thats from chitty chitty bang bang not sure)

Lilly the pink

Till there was you (Beatles)

She'll be coming round the moutain.

Griselda I've been known to sing Baby Mine as well My phase of singing Blue Christmas came to an end when I shed a tear onto sleeping DS's head and woke him up

What a brilliant thread...memories of songs my mother sang to me are flooding back!

DD's particular fave (she is 7 months) is 'loving you, is easy cause you're beautiful, la la lala la laaaa (((((aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaahh)))))' she gets very excited when you do the high pitched bit & joins in!! Can't for the life of me remember who it is by. She also loves 'Me & Mrs Jones' which DH sings to her, 'row row row your boat', & 'Little Boxes' (on a hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky).

'When a knight won his spurs' is one of my all time favourite children's hymns. We chose it for our school leavers assembly when I was 16 & we all cried. Mum & DH refused to let me have it at our wedding!!

Mocking Bird
Wonderful World (was playing just as she was born)
Hushabye mountain

"Day-o, day-o, daylight come and me wanna go home"
It's a funny song that you can sing in an accent and different pitches! Not sure why on earth I sing it but it's quite fun and DS seems to like it.

Molly Malone
The Wild rover
Danny Boy
Pop goes the weasel
My father's a lavatory cleaner
I dream of Jeannie
It's raining men