Mums ditch lullabies for pop songs

Mothers are shunning traditional lullabies in order to sing their babies to sleep in favour of modern pop songs, according to new research. A poll of 2,000 parents found that more than one in ten mothers regard old-fashioned lullabies such as Rock-A-Bye Baby as outdated, while many cannot remember the words to classics including Hush Little Baby and Lavender Blue. Nearly two thirds believed that contemporary rock and pop tunes were more effective for getting their babies to go to sleep.

A third of mothers said that they always lulled their baby off to sleep with a soothing song, while nearly half said that they sang softly to help calm their little one when they were upset.

Take That's hit Patience emerged as the most popular lullaby substitute, followed by Robbie Williams' Angels, Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl, James Blunt's You're Beautiful and Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley.

Kathryn Crawford, of The Baby Website, who conducted the research, said: "We were really surprised to find that mums would rather sing modern pop tunes than traditional lullabies.

"I expect most mums put the radio on when at home with baby in the daytime and many of the catchy lyrics in today's charts make it impossible to sing anything else at bedtime."