Babies Really DON'T Keep

Baby's really DON'T keep so enjoy them while you have them under your roof.  Even though you may be stressing out today and sometimes you feel like you are 10 miles past exhaustion, cuddle your babies while you can.  

This poem is one of my favorites and I think of each of my children when I read it.  Just so you know, you don't have to have five children to appreciate it!  The first version is the version that I had become familiar with first and is shorter and a little sweeter but the second is the actual poem.


Babies Don't Keep

I hope that my child, looking back on today
Will remember a mother who had time to play;
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow;
So quiet down, cobwebs
Dust, go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Song for a Fifth Child

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,
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby 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 rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Which one do you like best?  I would love to hear your thoughts.