Right, there is a nursery rhyme which I really hate. Annoyingly it's Jonas's favourite, probably a sign of his rebellion to come. The song is "Wind the Bobbin up." Oddly I remember this song from when I was tiny and grew up in the Midlands, then I moved to Devon and never heard it again until recently, when living in Leicester. From asking around it appears that it's not just because I wasn't really around small children for the time in between, people I've asked in the South with young children still don't sing it, making it more likely that it's because of the textile industry here. Okay, fine, I have no problem with singing about bobbins in a place where there was a thriving textile industry. What bugs me about the song is the complete non sequitur of the whole pointing bit. I mean, nursery rhymes often don't seem to make sense, but when you examine them there's some sort of meaning to them, but with this I really can't see why there is a leap from working with bobbins to pointing at windows and doors. Possibly there is a really deep hidden reason, but no one I've asked seems to know.

For those who don't know the lyrics here they are:


Wind the bobbin up,
Wind the bobbin up,
Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap.
Wind it back again,
Wind it back again,
Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap,
Point to the ceiling,
Point to the floor,
Point to the window,
Point to the door,
Clap your hands together, 1, 2, 3,
Put your hands upon your knee.

(At least these are the Leicester lyrics, Wikipedia has an extra bit of "do a roly-poly" before "put your hands upon your knee", I've never heard that one and don't understand how babies would do a roly-poly, or in fact how anyone would fit one in that gap, a roly poly makes it even more random).

If anyone can enlighten me as to a reason I would be most grateful as I seem to need to sing this song every day as it cheers Jonas up (because of all of the pointing I guess, it is a particular favourite with many babies) and I would love to know that there was a reason for the different actions. My strong suspicion is though that people just added bits to it to make it more fun or something. This is strengthened by the statement on Wikipedia that in the 70s it was a game with the lyrics:

Wind the bobbin up,
Wind the bobbin up,
Pull, pull,
Tug, tug, tug.

I don't remember anything other than the winding and pulling from when I was in school in the 80s, so maybe the rest of the lyrics have been added much more recently.

In case you're wondering how it came about that I know Jonas loves a song I hate, well, that comes back to the whole attending lots of baby groups, it's sung at many of them. I tried mentioning my hatred of the song to one of the leaders of a group and she looked at me as if I was strange and said what on earth was there to dislike about it. She didn't understand when I explained. I would think it was only me, but unless they're just humouring me, others at least understand even if they don't share my hatred. Matt hates it, but tends to make up new words anyway.

Labels: Jonas, rants, songs