Suitable--and Unsuitable--Nursery Songs

Some months ago, I was waiting in line to pay for a few items at my local pharmacy. The woman ahead of me was trying to settle her fussy infant by rolling her stroller back and forth while humming a soothing tune--"Papa's Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird," as I recall. She hummed it for bit when, abruptly (at least, I found it abrupt), she started on a new song, performing it at the same slow tempo, in the same soft-voiced, lilting way. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing, though, because of the song she'd chosen: "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?"

Needless to say, I'd never thought of that one as a lullabye.

Mind you, I wasn't at all offended; was amused by it, really. Unlike, say, some folks on a bus in Old Blighty who were said to be greatly affronted when a couple tried to lull their toddler to sleep by singing (and snorting) the Peppa Pig TV show theme song (link via SDA).

Peppa Pig--now, why does that name sound so familiar?