Jack, Jill, and the others

Recently, I made a nursery rhyme reference to my kids.  Imagine my horror when they returned glazed over, confused expressions.  They don't know nursery rhymes!

Every bad mom instinct boiled over inside me.  How had I reared these children and forgot to teach them nursery rhymes?  Thoughts barrelled in... how to play jacks, double dutch, cats cradle??

For my first birthday, my grandparents gave me a book of nursery rhymes, with a loving inscription that I will always cherish.  I pulled this dusty, old book off the shelf, and lovingly started flipping the pages.

Um.  This ladybug, that left her children home alone, had a house fire?  Mothers couldn't feed their children?  Robins die and cats fall in wells?
Children were whipped for fairly insignificant offenses?

What were they thinking?

I'll check if they have a less terrorizing nursery rhyme app for my phone.