It wasn’t until I had a baby that I realised how sexist the traditional nursery rhymes are. Especially The Wheels On The Bus!
The wheels on the bus go round and round…
The mummies on the bus go chatter chatter chatter…
The daddies on the bus go shhh shhh shhh…
I’m sure there are lots more examples although I’ve tried to block a fair few out of my mind… (The Farmer Wants A Wife springs to mind!)
On a slightly related note, I realised how much I like singing and clapping along to the B-I-N-G-O song.
There was a man who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o
B – I – N – G – O
B – I – N – G – O
B – I – N – G – O and Bingo was his name-o!
(Repeat ad nauseam)
You can thank me for the earworm later…
From zero to zygote 
Wiggles do an updated version of wheels on the bus, where the people on the bus clap, sing opera and the babies go wah wah wah. Check out their nursery rhyme video on you tube. I can never remember the words so I need their music to prompt me!
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Ha! Perhaps it’s just our borough that does the sexist version? We’ve had it at multiple venues so it’s not just me! 😂
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I always learned it that the mommies say Shh, to hush the babies. There were no daddies in the version I learned at all!!
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Me too. The book that we have with the music and lyrics is, “the parents on the bus go..” Interesting how things are different across the pond!
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Yup. I’m sure there are lots of versions of it!
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Yeah, I think it’s still rather sexist here! 😂
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Ha! That would be a more realistic version! Our buses are full of school kids!
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I always sing the mommies on the bus say I love you and the daddies on the bus say bad kids. Mr. Mob hates it! I think I’m funny! 😂 truthfully, we just make up anything when we sing that song because it’s little MPBs favourite and we have to sing it all the time.
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Yes, we do the, “I love you,” too. ❤️
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At our library they do “read a book” and try and add it in to multiple rhymes! 😂
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You are funny! I just need to get to a good version before B starts understanding what I’m saying! 😂
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Lol so true and so not something I ever considered.
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It’s just made me realise! T has even started deconstructing some of the children’s stories too! 😂
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That’s interesting. I never heard that version. We just have the windows on the bus go up and down. That’s the only other verse I know.
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Ah, perhaps it’s the sexist English (British) version! 😂
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Haha so true!
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That is different than the way I hear the Wheels on the Bus too. LOL. So many different ways!
Baby Bach LOVES the song though!
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Haha. B likes it when I do the BINGO song with the clapping (realised it is a farmer with a dog! Not a man as I’ve been singing). He also has a musical car which has random songs he likes but which are a bit annoying on repeat!
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Sexist and some are just plain weird!!!! E.g. The old lady in the shoe??? Weird. Little jack horner??? Weird. Rock a bye baby??? Weird…why would you scare a baby like that??!? Goosey goosey gander??? Weird and violent! In fact almost of these ones I’ve mentioned are violent!!!
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Yes totally! Ha! We keep getting Alexa to play random nursery rhymes. Quite funny. She played what shall we do with the drunken sailor only he was a sober fireman!
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Check out “Ten Little Indians” ( in German: “Zehn Kleine Negerlein” – ten little Negroes) for a worse example. Or “Ring-Around-A- Rosy – which is supposedly about the plague (- “we all fall down!”) Nursery rhymes are all brutal in their own special ways! That is why we love them (attention: irony!). Bah Bah Black Sheep.
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Oh goodness! Yes I’ve heard the ring o roses one before. I guess I hear a lot of nursery rhymes now as they also sing them in swimming! Some I’d never heard!
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