I sing to my kids. I sing all the time, and there are very few occasions that don't inspire me to burst forth into one song or another. Given that I was born in 1951 and spent many a Saturday with Dick Clark, many of the songs in my head can be traced to vestiges of various forms of Rock & Roll.

Bath time, for example, brings out two old favorites that are naturals for the event -- "Splish, Splash" and "Mother's Lament".

Between rousing renditions of --

"I was a splishin' and a splashin'
I was a rollin' and a strollin'
Yeah … I was a movin' and a groovin' ... woo!
We was a reelin' with the feelin' … ha!
We was a rollin' and a strollin'

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Movin’ with the groovin'
Splish, splash … yeah!";

and,

"A mother was washing her baby one night;
The youngest of ten and a delicate mite.
The mother was poor and the baby was thin;
'Twas naught but a skeleton covered with skin." --

I actually manage to get kids pretty darned clean without them going "down the plug hole" ... hair squeaky, most of the potatoes out of the ears, toe jams washed away ... while my children sing along, or ignore me completely while attending to soaping up dinosaur bits.

Little did I realize until today, however, that both these songs have ties to older parent adoption.

(Didn't see that coming, did you?)

Any guesses?

Yes, they are both songs more likely to be sung by geezers than by twenty-something parents, and neither are particularly appropriate for young children in a PC you-really-should-stick-to-Sesame-Street sort of way ... but neither were any of Mother Goose's hits in their time, come to think of it ... but that's not the connection.

Just as an aside, the songs my father sang to my brothers and me when we were little were even worse. We knew all the words to "Sixteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest", "The Big Black Bull" ... albeit in a slightly modified form at my mother's insistence ... "The Martins and the Coys" ... and a veritable songbook of ribald navy ditties.

Growing up with strains of "When they found him on the mountain, he was bleedin' like a fountain" may not be everyone's idea of ideal brain candy for toddlers, but since all four of us not only made it to adulthood, but have done pretty well for ourselves as humans, I'm declaring in favor of cultivating a sense of humor over worrying much about what sort of influence one song or another might have in the long run.

A catchy tune and amusing lyrics were good enough for me, so they're good enough for my kids, and that's how I like them apples!

More on the connection between my kids' bath songs coming up in the next post ...

For some adoption-friendly music, this Linda Ronstadt CD is a good one, and "My Forever Family" has songs for kids and parents. Those with kids from China might like "Lullabies: For China's Daughters& Their Adoptive Families".