Do you let your kid sing "eenie meenie minie mo"?

[wencit]

My kids (9 and 6) don't even know the Eenie Meenie song. I thought it was one of those songs that was just too old fashioned and had fallen out of favor, like "Ring Around the Rosie." They always say, "Blue shoes, blue shoes, who's it? Not you!" and then repeat. I didn't know about the alternate version, but now that I do, I'm glad my kids don't know the song.

[MamaMolly]

Grew up in the Deep South and we used tiger, but I knew kids who used the n word. I never really thought I'd the n word version being the original one, I just figured that it was the word of choice for trash mouthed kids. It was a forbidden word in my house.

[etwahl]

I had no idea! But a quick search led me to this link, which shows that almost all those little songs/nursery rhymes have serious racist roots

http://madamenoire.com/484055/racist-nursery-rhymes/

[kijip]

I would allow them to sing it, but it's never come up around here. I didn't teach it and I guess neither did the other parents or the various teachers they have had over the years.

[KrisM]

I never heard the bubble gum song. What are the rest of the words?

Bubblegum blubblegum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish? The person who is touched on the word "wish" says a number and then the person doing the picking continues around and counts the number. Whoever she lands on is out.

[ladysoapmaker]

I never new there was another phrasing other than tiger. Interesting to learn. Growing up we did eenie meenie minie mo, bubble gum and one potato, two potato... depending on who was counting or if there was a certain person they wanted it.

Though I think I'll teach my Girl Scouts the bubble gum one as I can't remember the rest of the potato one.

[MelissaTC]

I grew up in and right outside of NYC. I mostly heard the "n" word version. We would say tiger because we were taught not to say the "n" word.

[TxCat]

Grew up all over the western U.S. in the 80s and only knew the tiger version. My father is a bleeding heart liberal who grew up in Louisiana and Oklahoma but never instructed me not to sing it, and until this thread I never knew there was another version.

[wendibird22]

Both DDs know it...learned it from friends...the tiger version. Grew up singing it with my friends and only recently learned of the original version.