Nursery Rhymes: Are they really for children?

They are meant for children, it is true, but do you ever wonder how scary some of them sound?  Sample this:

Hush-a-by baby

On the tree top,

When the wind blows

The cradle will rock.

When the bough breaks,

The cradle will fall,

And down will fall baby

Cradle and all.

And what happens when the cradle and the baby fall? When we stop singing them and really try to understand the meaning of these rhymes, don't some of them just sound too shocking and too violent to be sung for children? So "Humpty Dumpty had a big fall", "Jack broke his crown", "Peter Pumpkin put his wife in a pumpkin shell", "Down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose". These are just a few illustrations from so-called popular nursery rhymes.

Agatha Christie, the queen of crime, had often used nursery rhymes as clues and even as names in some of her murder mysteries, realizing perhaps, long back, the sinister implications that some of them had. "One, two, buckle my shoe", "Sing a song of sixpence", "Five little Pigs", were all catchy titles and more in Christie books.

And if you don't believe me, read the links below for the sinister historical background and implications of some of the famous nursery rhymes that we sing for our children.

http://www.pinkheartstring.com/2013/03/truth-behind-nursery-rhymes.html

http://listverse.com/2012/11/28/10-sinister-origins-of-nursery-rhymes/

Maybe we should start singing classical music instead to rock our children to sleep.