Mother Goose Is Bigger Than Oprah!!!

Before I became a father, I had only the barest inkling of Mother Goose-related stuff.  Sure, I knew a few Mother Goose rhymes.  And I had some sense that many of the rhymes themselves dated back over a century or more.  But I wasn't aware of the true scope of Mother Goose's commercial efforts until now.

Friends, there is a MOTHER GOOSE INDUSTRY out there.  Mother Goose is big.  REALLY big.  Indeed, I submit that MOTHER GOOSE IS BIGGER THAN OPRAH!!!

Mother Goose stuffed animals.  Mother Goose cribs and furniture.  Mother Goose plates and silver/plastic-ware.  Mother Goose dolls.  Mother Goose CDs.  Mother Goose DVDs (the Wiggles do lots of MG).  Etc.  Etc.

Some of this may have to do with the fact that Mother Goose is in the public domain and not subject to copyright.  Some of it is doubtless due to "timeless charm."

I have had to develop a Mother Goose Strategy ("MGS" for short).  This is my personal strategy, and you should feel free to disagree with it.  But if you're a new dad (or know one), I think this is a pretty cool approach.  I thought about it so you don't have to!

1 - Don't bother with small Mother Goose books with only 4 or 5 rhymes.  You'll end up buying a ton of them if your son or daughter likes these sorts of rhymes.  Instead, buy one of the BIG Mother Goose Collections.

Exceptions to MGS # 1:  You can violate this rule if (a) the plan is to use the small rhyme book to teach your child to read, (b) you won the lottery, (c) you want to fill up shelf-space fast, or (d) you want to be able to have lots of books to sell back in 8 years as used books.  

2 - When looking for a BIG Mother Goose collection book to buy, consider the illustrations.  If you don't like the illustrations, or don't think you child will like them, then obviously don't buy it.  I've noticed that many MG collections have REALLY REALLY CREEPY ILLUSTRATIONS.  Stuff that would give me nightmares if I had to read them over and over, let alone what they'd do to a 2 1/2 year old.

Note:  We have three MG collections.  That's because no one told me MGS #1 before we ended up with a short MG collection of maybe 6 rhymes.  Our personal favorite is one that is illustrated with lots of animals.  The reason it is our favorite?  The Humpty Dumpty rhyme shows a chick coming out of the broken egg!  And there's a bird flying out of the crib on the pages for the Rock-A-Bye-Baby rhyme!  Great stuff for really small children.  I can't recall the illustrator; I'll provide that information in an updated post at some point, maybe with a link to it online.

3 - When looking for a BIG Mother Goose collection, also consider the rhymes in the book.  If the book is missing your favorite rhyme (e.g., doesn't include the full version of Twinkle Twinkle or whatever), then don't bother buying it.  Chances are another collection online or in the same bookstore will have what you remember from your childhood.

4 - If you followed my strategy and get a BIG Mother Goose Collection of some kind, then make sure from the outset to establish that you're only going to read some subset of them during any given bedtime session.  Maybe up to 2 dozen, since many are really short.  It is true that at some point you may need to do a Mother Goose Marathon and read the whole thing.  But you don't want to have to do that every night, all the time.

5 - Edit while you read it.  Many of MG's rhymes were intended for mature audiences.  Lots of them involve kids being beaten, people or things falling, death, etc.  No need to always read every rhyme verbatim.  Better to pay attention to the rhyme and edit where appropriate.  There's time enough for our kids to get the G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 stuff later after age 5 (or whenever - you get my point).

Hope this is helpful!

UPDATE:  I was thinking of "Sylvia Long's Mother Goose," from Chronicle Books in San Francisco.  I've attached a link in case you are interested.

TC Daddy