Have you ever heard your kids singing a children’s song and thought to yourself, “What on earth did they just say?” You may even be surprised to find just how creepy a lot of children songs are out there.
As parents, we assume that all kiddy songs are squeaky clean and innocent. But if you really read the lyrics carefully, what you discover just may make you wonder what the songwriters were thinking when they came up with such disturbing stuff for children’s ears!
Top 10 Creepy Children Songs
For a bit more suspense, we’ve listed these ten creepy children songs from the least to the most disturbing lyrics. When you reach our top one pick, you will certainly be left wondering why any of these creepy tunes are considered children songs at all.
Here is our countdown to the top 10 creepy children songs with disturbing lyrics:
1o. Rockabye Baby
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “If the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all”.
Why would somebody put their baby up in a tree? What if no one catches the falling cradle in time? How is this a soothing lullaby when all the child can imagine is a baby falling out of a tree and hurting themselves? Such a scary thought!
9. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don’t know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she’ll die!”.
We wouldn’t recommend kids to be eating bugs anyway, but this straight-forward message about how this old woman will die for consuming a fly is a bit extreme. Plus, this children’s song ends off with her eating a horse and “she died, of course!”. Lovely (not!).
8. Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “Your house is on fire and your children are gone”.
The poor little ladybug’s house is burning and her “children are gone”?? What happened to them? Did they perish in the fire? How is this a fun children’s song for little kids to sing along to? If you ask us, it’s pretty traumatising actually! Sorry for your loss, Mummy Ladybug.
7. There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “She gave them some soup without any bread, then she whipped them all soundly and put them to bed”.
So this woman who has “so many children, she doesn’t know what to do”, feels that it’s fine to just whip them after a measly dinner for no apparent reason and send them off to bed? Wow. We guess she probably won’t be receiving the Mother of the Year award any time soon.
6. Jack And Jill
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after”.
https://youtu.be/ccXlg2T5DtE
Jack and his sister Jill are sent to fetch some water from the well which is for some reason right at the very top of a hill.
He then falls down and cracks his head open, with Jill following right behind him. Jack later has to recuperate in bed with only some vinegar and brown paper to mend his injuries. We sure hope he gets well soon!
5. I’m Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: I’m squishing up my baby bumblebee, won’t my mother be so proud of me?”
This kid was bringing home a baby bumblebee to his mum and when it stings him, he seeks revenge by squishing it up and killing it!
The next part of the lyrics describes how he’s “wiping off the baby bumblebee”, from his hands. No. Mother would not be proud of you for abusing animals. Not at all.
4. Alouette
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “Lark, I will pluck you, I shall pluck your head”.
This French children’s song is popular for those learning the language and is supposed to teach kids about different body parts, but it is essentially singing about plucking a little bird’s head, beak, neck, back, wings, feet, and tail.
What’s with the terrifying lyrics? Why is it about slowly dismembering an innocent little lark? Freaky!
3. Three Blind Mice
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “They all ran after the farmer’s wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife”.
https://youtu.be/c7IvPPhf050
These three mice are blind, so they obviously can’t see where they’re running and therefore were not intentionally chasing after the farmer’s wife just to scare her.
But what does she do about it? She chops off their little tails with a sharp carving knife! Not only are they visually impaired, they now have bleeding stumps where their tails used to be. Yikes!
2. Knees Up Mother Brown
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: “If I catch you bending, I’ll saw your legs right off”.
https://youtu.be/fvzAn4-0zig
Umm, Mother Brown has to keep her knees up, if not someone is going to cut her legs off with a saw?? This sounds like something straight out of a horror movie!
We wouldn’t want junior to be waking up in the middle of the night from a bad dream after listening to this frightening tune.
1. Clementine
Creepy lyrics unexpected for children songs: How I missed her! How I missed her! How I missed my Clementine, till I kissed her little sister, and forgot my Clementine”.
You’ll have to really listen to the lyrics of this whole song to understand the story of the miner whose daughter Clementine drowns in the river and he misses her greatly. But then he decides to focus his attention on his youngest daughter instead and soon forgets all about his firstborn.
In the original version, this children’s song actually ends with these final creepy lyrics: “Then the miner, forty-niner, soon began to peak and pine, thought he ought to join his daughter, now he’s with his Clementine”.
So as he grows older, the father is extremely consumed by guilt and anguish that he ends his own life to be with the daughter he lost years ago. Not the kind of message we want our kids to be picking up!
What do you think of these children’s songs with creepy lyrics? Did you know there was such questionable content in kids’ songs? Have you come across any other children’s songs which you found to be a little disturbing? Let us know by leaving your comments below!
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