As of last night, I was just going to mail this out separately, but by this
morning it seems a lot of people got caught up with reading their Lactnet
e-mail and requested copies, and so, with apologies to those of you who may
have seen this poem too often (though that's hard to imagine....), here it
is:
Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth
Empty the dustpan - poison the moth
Hang out the washing -make up the bed
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother, whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
(Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo)
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo)
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullaba-loo
But I'm playing "Kanga" and this is my "Roo"
(Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo)
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs: Dust, go to Sleep!
I'm nursing my baby and babies don't keep.
Author Unknown
I have also seen shorter versions of this, with the word nursing replaced
with the word rocking. LLL used to have note cards with this verse on the
front......anyone know if they still do? And someone asked about getting
this printed up for framing.....I'm sure someone somewhere must have
it.....what a lovely poster for waiting rooms that would make! Once upon a
time I found a pattern for this in counted cross-stitch, and even traced it
with colored markers to hang on a wall, but have lost track of both items
in the move we made since then. A last thought........wouldn't this make a
lovely lullabye set to soft music?
Sue LaLeike
Lehigh Acres, FL (who just last night promised her childbirth class that
they would never, ever regret one single minute they spend holding their
babies, and that she is proof positive that the mess will still be there,
patiently waiting to be picked up, after their babies have grown!)
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