Where does the British expression "tears before bedtime" come from?

From any parent! I used to think this was simply a threat of punishment, made by the parent to the child when the child was misbehaving and apparently out of control in the evening, but I now see that is too simple. Small children have a habit of becoming hyperactive at the end of their day. They will rush around in a frenzied manner.Curiously I see the same in puppies, so it may be some mechanism to burn off excess fuel ! It commonly, if not invariably, ends with the tired child becoming weepy. It is this observation that led Nanny to make the statement to , and of,her charge, by way of saying that it was time the child was tucked into bed. So it was a prediction born of experience. It is now often used to describe what the speaker perceives as a 'childish' piece of behaviour, particularly by some politician, which will serve little purpose, produce little result and 'end in tears'.

Tears Before Bedtime

Sure, but so are a lot of things we say/sing/teach kids. Consider the nursery rhyme Rock A' Bye Baby. You know, "when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come cradle, baby and all"? Massive, internal cranial bleeding is what I want my kid to imagine as she's dozing off. And what about the rhyme Mary Mary, Quite Contrary? That's actually a rhyme about Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) and the graveyard where she put anyone dissenting from the Catholic Church. There's also Humpty Dumpty (breaks his pate open after falling off a wall), Hansel and Gretel (cannibalism), Gerogie Porgie (pervert), and the list goes on and on.

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And what the hell's up with those happy nursery rhymes like Rock a Bye Baby singing about babies falling down from the top of a tree? "When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come cradle, baby and all." Now how's a 30ft fall supposed to make a baby calm down and fall asleep? And why was the baby hanging in a tree top in the first place? (Every parent knows that the middle of a freeway at rush hour is a much better place for a baby. "Come on, cross the street! Come to daddy! You can do it!") Or what about Jack and Jill, singing about a boy falling down a hill and cracking his head open while they were just trying to quench their thirst and look for water? Hey, wait a second! If it's that easy, prepare for my next #1 happy kid song! I was thinking along the lines of "Curious Anne and the jolly garbage disposal" or "Baby in a hot car, hot car, hot car". Whaddya think?? COME ON, YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT!!!! ((((((((((Nolte)))))))))) EDIT @ Vernon: Ha - yeah, I always come first. Err I mean... ;) But great minds think alike, tight? DOUBLE EDIT: ......I meant "right", not "tight". Damn typo! LOL