I Wouldn't Use These As Children's Room Decor

Remember I want to redecorate our children's bedroom? Well, while I was swirling kids' room looks in my head, I thought of the idea to paint the walls with nursery rhymes or songs characters. Wouldn't that be cute? Hand-drawn and hand-painted Mary and her little lamb, little stars twinkling near the ceiling, and London bridge falling down. WAIT! That doesn't look right. In fact, it seems to be a negative thing to draw. And my children could be forever asking me why that bridge is falling.

My kids have a CD of children songs that we listen to in the car and there were ones whose lyrics seem a bit disturbing. Like this particular song:

Throw someone down the stairs?

Oh, such unfortunate events!

I used to wonder why songs that are supposedly for children, would  be violent or depressing in nature. The reason for that is explained in this post.

Lately, my 5-year-old daughter kept singing the song Oh My Darling, Clementine. She probably learned it in school. Upon researching (read: googling) the words to the song, we discovered that it's a super sad song! The lyrics below are from this source:

“Oh my darling, oh my darling,

My darling Clementine,

You are lost for me forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

Drove she ducklings to the water

Ev’ry morning just at nine,

Hit her foot against a splinter,

Fell into the foaming brine.

Ruby lips above the water,

Blowing bubbles soft and fine,

But alas, I was no swimmer,

Neither was my Clementine.

In a churchyard near the canyon,

Where the myrtle doth entwine,

There grow rosies and some posies,

Fertilized by Clementine.”

I don't know if I would let my children sing these songs still. But, even with seemingly harmless songs like these, I think parental discretion is needed. I am not sure if there's some research on that, but exposing the kids too much to these nursery rhymes might have a negative psychological impact. Who knows? I am glad I could sing wonderful Christian songs to them instead.