Have you noticed that nursery rhymes are nonsense?

Yes my boyfriend and I were just thinking about this last week. The rhymes sound so random and confusing. They're weird and not like something our kids needs to know. And yet I still remember a lot of nursery rhymes... But I don't know what they mean. We did find out this one tho cuz I was the most curious about it - "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater had a wife and couldn't keep her. He put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well." Was she locked up in this shell? Did he feed her? Now according to wikipedia it used to be a much darker rhyme (Still Mother Goose) in the 1800s- "Peter, my neeper. Had a wife and couidna' keep her. He pat her i' the wa' and lat a' the mice eat her." Um what?! Why?! And huh?!

They have been around for generations and you are right...they don't make much sense. Kids just like to sing them. To a kid they are funny. Dr.Suess doesn't make much sense either but kids absolutely love him.

Hmmm...you know what? These nursery rhymes might be seem like nonsense...but most of them have a story behind them. I can't remember right now...but there's a site which has the stories behind each of the rhymes. Jack and Jill is a long winded rhyme with a couple of stanzas that come after the one we learn at school. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ Check out this website. I'm majoring in Psychology and I'm a kindergarten teacher too. Though we don't use these traditional rhymes at our school, I was interested in checking out how they originated.

Actually Jill had been hurt herself "and Jill went tumbling after" Tumble is the same as fall. She was probably running to assist her brother when she tripped. Those were all meant simply for entertainment and things were a lot different then back when the author came out with them. IF you want disturbing try and see if you can find the original versions of the fairy tales. Shoving Snow Whites wicked step mother off a cliff was much more humane than the torment she suffers in the first version.

I don't think there's anything wrong with nursery rhymes even though they are nonsensical. They're supposed to be like that. They were made for kids to have fun, so they don't have to have a deep meaning because the kids wouldn't understand them yet. It's not wrong to enjoy a little bit of nonsense every once in a while. If we would always find sense in things, our life would be too serious. I don't want to live like that. I want to have fun. I want to laugh at stupid things. Yes, it's important to think deep, but I feel like I need to have a break from that sometimes.

They're merely stories for children so They're nonsense. But why would you waste your time analysing nursery rhymes?

I never thought and still don't think that nursery rhymes are nonsense. This thing are for kids so that they find them interesting and easy to remember, because they are not very usual.

Yes, I sometimes think about nursery rhymes being nonsense. I sometimes don't understand what they mean and what they are for.

Nursery rhymes usually have meaning to them. They're like a coded journal entry. They tell about something that happened to someone, or have a lesson to teach. You just have to decipher it. Hey diddle diddle (sound of music) the cat and the fiddle (cat would be slang for a guy; like dog,dude,etc) the cow jumped over the moon (cows can't jump over moons, so this would mean something impossible. "When pigs fly") The little dog laughed to see such a sport (little dog= young man) and the dish ran away with the spoon (dish is what you call someone of importance, someone that gets noticed, usually a beautiful girl. she's a dish. A spoon could mean someone unknown, not noticed, unpopular. A spoon isn't often used to eat with, usually its a fork we use.) So you have a guy playing the fiddle, a young man is laughing at him, and a girl is running away with someone. If you're running away you have to be running away from someone or something, so I'm guessing the young man is with the girl, and he's laughing at the fiddler, because he thinks he's better than him, and his girl thinks he's mean, so she leaves him for the fiddler. Lesson you don't need to impress everyone, just the one person who will be with you, and love you for who you are.

There are some that are non sense but kids would not mind anyway. As long as it makes kids sing to it then I guess that's okay. it's up for them to figure out what the rhymes are for and what it really means.

I feel kindergarten rhymes for making children cheerful and active may be there is no meaning in some of the rhymes but for uttering will be good as like songs this may help children to improve their talk. It is good oral exercise for them. Teachers will be giving sign to a particular words so that children can understand the words and repeat and thats how they learn.

it doesnt matter, it just has to rhyme, kids don't care

Hi Joe You seem to consider the nursery rhymes in a different way. This is because you are grown up. As you are researching you have developed a habit of questioning also? Its good. Then whats your idea about the cartoons. Animals, trees, birds all talking in human language. What about the humans coming in different shapes in comics. Whatever happens to Tom(Tom and jerry)he will be back again in the same shape and will be back of jerry. All these things you think it as rubbish. Have you seen any children questioning as you do? Probably the answer is no. Psychology of children is different. They just take the words from the rhymes. and sing it. Music has a great power to penetrate into the mind. Children should not be bored with the introduction of new words and new ideas. Thats why the rhymes have been introduced. As like there are no questions in the short stories about the logic, here also no logic is being noticed. So a cow can jump over the moon, dish can run away with the spoon. Hope you understand.

hello friend why are u listening to nursey rhymes at this age 1please can you tell me but you are right nursery rhymes are somewhat nonsense jack and jill went up the hill ot fetch a pail of water i cant understand what was the need to go to the mountain they are telling it so happilyyyyyyyyy