The Anatomy of Make Believe (Illustrated)
Ah, the crazy, goofy things we come up with to entertain our offspring and ourselves!
They’re wonderful, but when you actually think about almost any nursery rhyme, you want to tilt your head and let out a slow, “Huuuuhhhh?” And adding hand or foot make-believe play, even though it can be delightful, doesn’t make them any less odd.
A lot of nursery rhymes and their hand jive date back hundreds of years, so their crazy randomness may have had something (or a lot) to do with all the mercury and opiates people were drinking back in ye olde day. But today kids ask about their meaning or you wonder to yourself about them. Hmmmmmm…
Perhaps the futile fate of the poor, deluded itsy bitsy spider was like a kid version of Greek mythology’s Sisyphus (wiki), who was cursed to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill only to have it eternally roll back down. (Which reminds me of watching cartoons on YouTube with my son, for some reason.)
This Little Pig might be considered play intended to teach kids counting, except for that whole “no actual counting” part. Who the heck knows! Maybe with Foo Foo there’s some forgotten connection to a historic clash between the aristocracy and the field mice of the lower classes? Honestly, I was too lazy to research it.
None of it seems to make any sense. But they’re for fun! So, when your child asks you why the little piggy always cries, just play your part and shut them up with a foot tickle.
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Gale says: 
Thorsten 
Manda 
Name Required 
Marija 
Wendy 
nerdylutheranchick 
Malbon 
Melly 
Mother Duck 
Lisa 
Lacey S 
WeirdFish 
Laurie 
Linda 
Paula 
Amber 
