Babies Don't Keep

Sometimes my house gets a bit dirty...

dishes have to be washed & put away

diapers need to be folded

 

dirt on the floor should be swept

 

sometimes Little J even plays in the aforementioned dirt

Whenever I start to get discouraged by the messy house & many chores that are waiting on me, I read this poem. It was published in a 1958 edition of Lady's Home Journal and I think it's still quite applicable more than 50 years later. Enjoy!

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
 
Oh, I've grown 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 her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
 
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.

-Ruth Hulburt Hamilton