‘My sister thought I cast a spell on her baby - I was just singing a lullaby’

Simon thought his soothing tune was perfect for getting his niece to sleep, but his sister and husband were less than pleased with his song choice. 

The moment Simon* laid eyes on his niece, Molly*, he knew they were going to be great friends. 

Whenever his sister Lucy* and her husband needed to go somewhere, he was more than happy to babysit. He wouldn’t even ask for money because spending time with the 4mo is worth every second. 

Recently, Molly had some trouble sleeping, so Simon started pulling out all the stops to get her to relax. 

This typically includes singing songs he thinks will help, but we’re not talking about traditional lullabies, or songs about soft and pleasant dreams.  

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Simon didn't realise his lullaby choice was so "inappropriate." Source: iStock

“My sister thought my lullaby was a reference to the devil”

See, Simon was a self-proclaimed “witch” during his teenage years, meaning he has a back catalogue of unusual and sometimes morbid songs in his repotoire.

“Normally, it's just me and the baby, so I have gotten used to it being just the two of us,’ he told Reddit. 

“So far, one of the few songs that has worked is the lullaby from a show called Centaurworld,” he said. 

While the melody may be enchanting enough for a baby to fall asleep, its lyrics are nothing short of a nightmare. 

“Hush now, hide, all you little ones, rush now, into the middle of nowhere, singing and laughter will die,” he sang to Molly. 

“Dreamless sleep follows the Nowhere King. When his kingdom comes, darkness is nigh.

“Quiet, crawl through the in-between; silent, secretive feeling of fearsome hatred that reaches the skies.

“You will bring joy to the Nowhere King when he sees the light leaving your eyes.” 

The song, which has a “beautiful but sad melody”, will usually help Molly fall asleep, prompting Simon to sing it whenever she needs.

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One evening, Simon was invited over to his sister’s house to watch a film. As the movie started playing, Molly began to cry. 

Without hesitation, Simon offered to assist and let his sister and her husband carry on watching the film. “I wasn't as invested in what we were watching, so I offered to go and try to quiet her down,” he said.

He held the 4mo in his arms and walked back to the living room, where he sat down and tried to keep Molly calm. 

But nothing was working, so he began singing the lullaby he had sung many times before. However, unlike every other occasion where he would be singing to her alone, this time he was doing it in front of her parents. 

As Molly fell asleep, her parents’ eyes widened in shock; gobsmacked that they had just heard Simon sing such a morbid tune to their little baby.

His sister Lucy approached him after the film and asked him why he chose such an “inappropriate” song. 

“She reminded me how I went through a witch phase in my teens,” he recalled. “She honestly thought I was repeating some kind of spell.” He later realised the lyrics referring to the “Nowhere King” may have been “a reference to the devil or something.” 

“I can understand why the parents were horrified by the lyrics, but I honestly was only singing it because the tune is very relaxing,” he justified. “And at four months old, how would she even know what I was saying?”

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“Some traditional lullabies have rather dark lyrics”

The Reddit community couldn’t see the issue with Simon’s song choice either and compared it to other traditional children’s lullabies which are far less welcoming than some may realise. 

“The lyrics to rock-a-bye-baby are about a baby falling out of a tree, for crying out loud,” someone wrote. “Lots of lullabies are weird that way.”

“Some traditional lullabies have rather dark lyrics,” said another. 

“I’ve sung some questionable songs to my baby,” a mum wrote. “Now that she’s two and singing along I try to be more aware to put positive vibes into her head. There’s enough scary and dark stuff out there already.”

Others argued the baby was “too young to understand” the words behind the melody and Simon’s sister was overreacting. 

“The baby doesn't even understand what you're saying, and when she starts getting old enough to, it's still not going to register,” someone wrote. 

“Honestly, I was expecting something much darker when you said inappropriate,” someone laughed. “Unless they have a genius baby that already understands all the words, who cares?”

Others, however, put themselves in the parents’ shoes and suggested a better way to get Molly to sleep despite Simon’s best efforts. 

“I can clearly see why the parents weren't keen on them,” someone wrote. “If the words really make them uncomfortable, you could always just hum the melody to the baby.”

“As a parent, if I heard someone singing that to my kid, I'd feel some type of way,” a mum shared. “To their minds, you are calling Darkness into their child’s life,” another cautioned. 

*Names have been changed

Originally published as ‘My sister thought I cast a spell on her baby - I was just singing a lullaby’