Have you ever sat down and really listened through the lyrics of the many songs we often sing to little children? Just like the original, pre-Disney fairytales are a lot darker than the sanitized modern renditions, old lullabies, and children’s stories tend to often seem a bit morbid.

A man asked the internet if he was a jerk for singing an “inappropriate” lullaby when he was babysitting his niece. He wrote out the lullaby in full for netizens to judge and people had a lively discussion, sharing other “inappropriate” kids’ songs and their own ideas for lulling a very young child to sleep.

Traditional children’s songs and lullabies are downright scary when you think about the lyrics

Image credits: LightFieldStudios / envato (not the actual photo)

So one man got in trouble for singing an “inappropriate” lullaby to his 4-month-old niece

Image credits: Timur Weber / pexels (not the actual photo)

Image source: Carasouls

Babies have more musical preferences than one might think

There is, in fact, a sort of near-universal logic to lullabies. Because they are intended to put children to sleep, they have very exaggerated melodies. While this may, perhaps, sound counterproductive, remember that literal infants tend to not have the most developed ear for music, so “bigger” sounds are the best way to get across the highs and lows of a song.

Interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that melody is important for infants. If the song is too discordant, babies have been shown to lose interest and will no longer pay attention. At the same time, lullabies need to be repetitive, either by literally repeating lines or just employing rhymes, as babies struggle to comprehend the music otherwise.

Indeed, despite the inability to speak, scientists have found that babies do seem to have strong opinions about the sort of music that gets sung to them. This last verb is important, as another study found that infants, for whatever reason, do not really like the sound of instrumentals and greatly prefer just vocals.

There are other examples of cultures developing somewhat “scary” lullabies

Interestingly, the idea that lullabies have to be horrible and dark also seems to have some cross-cultural power. For example, in traditional Brazilian lullabies, for example “Dorme neném” (Sleep Little Baby,) there are references to the “Cuca ” (or “Coco”) which is a mythological boogeyman. So parents, essentially, are singing advice to babies, that they really need to sleep or they will be eaten.

Similarly, Colombia has lullabies with the same concept. However, it is worth noting that the vast majority of lullabies for babies are entirely benign and are mostly just about falling asleep, set to a melody. We perhaps tend to remember the more “horrifying” ones because of the mental whiplash. Hearing some morbid lyrics set to a very childish tune is, after all, pretty unnerving.

In general, lullabies are helpful in easing children’s stress

However, overall, there really isn’t much harm in a lullaby. First and foremost, the infant can’t really remember the lyrics or even understand them in the first place. After all, we only truly start to form memories after the age of two to three. The real criticism is that infants have been shown to prefer lullabies sung by their mothers.

But overall, some lullabies, particularly from a caring family member like OP have still been shown to ease anxiety and stress both in the baby and, more interestingly, in the caregiver. So all in all, perhaps OP’s sister needs a be of de-stressing if a somewhat dark lullaby really gets her down so much.

OP gave important additional context

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Many thought he was NTA as lullabies can get pretty dark

Others shared the songs they used

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