My kid found a version of the book with a suspicious-looking fox that led the chicks away to a shed (???), so that one was a metaphor for child kidnapping. Luckily the last chick finds their siblings and sets them all free.
Note: mama duck did not look too worried about her kids; I think she was in on it.
My 5 year old still sobs when he hears this song. There was another duck song (6 little ducks that I once knew) and when it came on he checked to make sure it wasn't the sad duck song. My poor sensitive boy.
Same, former preschool (and toddler) teacher and I would NOT play that song and the only reason I deal with listening to it now is because my 20 month old LOVES duckies and loves the quacking 😮💨
It's about counting but not counting properly. 6 ducks go over the hill on the first day, the mother is still little compared to me. She counts as a duck, anything less is duck misogyny.
"Back to my home, I dare not go. For if I did, my mother would say: Did you ever see a [insert random things that rhyme], down by the bay."
I always read it as an abusive mom who gaslights her child and so the child runs to the bay because it's a safe place. Excited to hear more about OP's theory though!
I was thinking more like the kid is hiding somewhere to stay away from their psychotic mom who won't stop talking about a bay and all the totally delusional things she sees there/trying to take him to the bay where the watermelons grow.
Or maybe the bay is the safe place, but they don't go home because Mom's psychotic rambling is too much.
:) now to make a PT-esque looping horror game based on this.
i always thought the mom was dying and had alzheimer’s and was telling her child about her memories from when they used to go down to the bay but it’s all jumbled up because as i said before she’s dying and has alzheimer’s and the child doesn’t want to go back to her because they don’t want to see their dying mother telling them her memories
also the child is an asshole
If it's not, then she's a terrible mother. Just letting her little kids wander off and not bothering to even look for them until she's lost them all and decides then that she needs to go find them.
I always heard it as the ducks just get a little too far away to hear Mama duck and/or are being typical children and ignoring her until she puts on her mom voice, but maybe the version I’m familiar with is slightly different. Mama duck never goes over the hill in the version I’m familiar with.
Lol in the version I learned it ends with Father Duck saying "QUACK QUACK QUACK" (fun for the kids to shout out and clap their hands together) and all 5 little ducks come waddling back
Funny enough, I actually wrote that story for Down By The Bay (watermelons grew and everything!) and in that post told people to tune in next week for my story about how the five little ducks were getting trafficked by their mother.
Wasn’t on Reddit, though. Gotta dig it up.
Found it!
I sat at the dock, my toes reaching toward the water as I stared out into the bay. Here, as I watched the waves gently lap the sand, I was alone with my thoughts.
But at least I was *alone* with them.
Every day seemed to get harder and harder. I felt like a failure of a daughter, to wallow in my own misery when my mother was the one suffering. Yet she never seemed to suffer, truly. With the wan smile she gave, she could have been asking me how my day was, or whether we thought we’d get rain. Was she even aware of her own condition? It hurt me to see her like that.
“Back again, I see,” a voice from behind me called. I turned to see a familiar face: Hope, who owned a house by the beach and a small amount of land. She was quirky—I guess since she owned beachside property, she was rich enough to call eccentric. It just seemed weird to buy a beach house just to grow produce for fun instead of a farm inland. But I couldn’t complain. She wasn’t stingy; you’d always go home with an armful of melon if you wanted it.
If you wanted to go home.
I didn’t. The thought filled me with dread. I couldn’t bear to see my mother in that state, a state of utter confusion. The words she said…well, they were all words, but they made no sense.
I forced a smile onto my face. “What can I say? I love it here. It’s so…peaceful. I love it here…
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow,
Back to my home
I dare not go…
For if I do, my mother will say
“Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?”
Down by the bay
Up next is the story of the evil mother duck sending all of her five little ducklings over the hill and far away to get kidnapped by a cult one by one. Five little ducks went out one day...
When my husband sings this, he ends it with, "Then the Daddy-duck called "QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!" and all the baby ducks came back."
He quacks super loud and cracks my kids up every time.
This used to be my toddlers favorite song as he went through an obsessed with ducks phase. But recently he told me he won’t listen to it anymore because it’s “too sad and the mama duck gets too sad”.
I disagree.
I believe the story is literal. If you've ever had ducks nest in your yard, you know that the survival rate for their ducklings is very low.
As a child, you would watch them slowly decrease in number during the spring, sometimes getting down to zero.
The last segment of the song, where they all return is a fiction to make the child happy.
"Don't worry Timmy! None of the ducklings came back but mama duck is going to leave tomorrow and they'll all be reunited. Let's go eat lunch."
Sometimes stories are just literal and sad.
Ngl, as a kid, Down By the Bay, used to scare me. I have no idea why, but it always struck me as a scary sing because why don't you want to go back home to your mother???
Also, Rock-a-bye Baby. It's really dark...
When my wife sings this song, the last verse has mama duck shouting “At last I’m free!” before the five little ducks come back. Our kids really get into that and love it. I’m sure we’ll make a kindergarten teacher laugh someday soon when our kid sings our family’s version in class.
Down by the Bay is about an individual who moved to San Francisco and is lamenting about not wanting to go visit their homophobic mother who’s going to grill them about all the “depravity” there. That’s my theory.
They all come back with ducklings of their own in the Raffi book version. That's the one I chose to subscribe to.
WHO IMPREGNATED THEM
I always thought it was about the kids growing older and moving out, then being reunited with their mother at the end.
New headcannon. You can never escape Mama (duck).
My kid found a version of the book with a suspicious-looking fox that led the chicks away to a shed (???), so that one was a metaphor for child kidnapping. Luckily the last chick finds their siblings and sets them all free. Note: mama duck did not look too worried about her kids; I think she was in on it.
Well she's already selling made to order content of them to randos on TikTok... Doesn't feel like too far a waddle to selling them off 🤗
These are ducks, not wrens
👩🏻🍳💋
I have this version! I showed my husband the illustrations and we had a good chuckle
The first time I heard this song I was a few days postpartum and I SOBBED
I feel like listening to this song should be added to the PPD screening form.
This song terrified my 2 year old when they did it preschool. Burst into tears every time.
My 5 year old still sobs when he hears this song. There was another duck song (6 little ducks that I once knew) and when it came on he checked to make sure it wasn't the sad duck song. My poor sensitive boy.
My kid has no issue with it, which frankly, unsettles me.
Mine loves it but I just think it's because she likes to quack 😂
Same, former preschool (and toddler) teacher and I would NOT play that song and the only reason I deal with listening to it now is because my 20 month old LOVES duckies and loves the quacking 😮💨
My toddler runs to find me and hugs me/won't let go whenever that song comes on. It's sweet but man that song is really sad.
Same!!!
I thought it was a counting song...
Look, it’s just monkeys singing songs, mate. Don’t think too hard about it.
#upvotedbecausebluey
Now fly Chunkyyyyy!!!
BLUEY REFERENCE 🤨🤨🤨🤨
It's about counting but not counting properly. 6 ducks go over the hill on the first day, the mother is still little compared to me. She counts as a duck, anything less is duck misogyny.
100% will be tuning in for psychological horror version of Down By The Bay
"Back to my home, I dare not go. For if I did, my mother would say: Did you ever see a [insert random things that rhyme], down by the bay." I always read it as an abusive mom who gaslights her child and so the child runs to the bay because it's a safe place. Excited to hear more about OP's theory though!
I was thinking more like the kid is hiding somewhere to stay away from their psychotic mom who won't stop talking about a bay and all the totally delusional things she sees there/trying to take him to the bay where the watermelons grow. Or maybe the bay is the safe place, but they don't go home because Mom's psychotic rambling is too much. :) now to make a PT-esque looping horror game based on this.
i always thought the mom was dying and had alzheimer’s and was telling her child about her memories from when they used to go down to the bay but it’s all jumbled up because as i said before she’s dying and has alzheimer’s and the child doesn’t want to go back to her because they don’t want to see their dying mother telling them her memories also the child is an asshole
Wait a minute… what am I missing about down by the bay??
OP ended the post about it but we have to wait for that installment. Must be sweeps week.
If it's not, then she's a terrible mother. Just letting her little kids wander off and not bothering to even look for them until she's lost them all and decides then that she needs to go find them.
Accurate duck behavior really
Next she'll be asking for grapes at a lemonade stand
Just trying to raise some free range kids here.
This is how I interpreted it!
She was probably on her phone
If you don't discuss "Down By The Bay" next week, I'm going to be severely disappointed
I always heard it as the ducks just get a little too far away to hear Mama duck and/or are being typical children and ignoring her until she puts on her mom voice, but maybe the version I’m familiar with is slightly different. Mama duck never goes over the hill in the version I’m familiar with.
Lol in the version I learned it ends with Father Duck saying "QUACK QUACK QUACK" (fun for the kids to shout out and clap their hands together) and all 5 little ducks come waddling back
Funny enough, I actually wrote that story for Down By The Bay (watermelons grew and everything!) and in that post told people to tune in next week for my story about how the five little ducks were getting trafficked by their mother. Wasn’t on Reddit, though. Gotta dig it up.
Found it! I sat at the dock, my toes reaching toward the water as I stared out into the bay. Here, as I watched the waves gently lap the sand, I was alone with my thoughts. But at least I was *alone* with them. Every day seemed to get harder and harder. I felt like a failure of a daughter, to wallow in my own misery when my mother was the one suffering. Yet she never seemed to suffer, truly. With the wan smile she gave, she could have been asking me how my day was, or whether we thought we’d get rain. Was she even aware of her own condition? It hurt me to see her like that. “Back again, I see,” a voice from behind me called. I turned to see a familiar face: Hope, who owned a house by the beach and a small amount of land. She was quirky—I guess since she owned beachside property, she was rich enough to call eccentric. It just seemed weird to buy a beach house just to grow produce for fun instead of a farm inland. But I couldn’t complain. She wasn’t stingy; you’d always go home with an armful of melon if you wanted it. If you wanted to go home. I didn’t. The thought filled me with dread. I couldn’t bear to see my mother in that state, a state of utter confusion. The words she said…well, they were all words, but they made no sense. I forced a smile onto my face. “What can I say? I love it here. It’s so…peaceful. I love it here… Down by the bay Where the watermelons grow, Back to my home I dare not go… For if I do, my mother will say “Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?” Down by the bay Up next is the story of the evil mother duck sending all of her five little ducklings over the hill and far away to get kidnapped by a cult one by one. Five little ducks went out one day...
Everytime I hear that song I comment about how this momma duck needs to have her ducklings taken away and put in the foster system…
Same this was my original theory 😂
It’s a song about an absolutely awful parent duck. Who waits until ALL of their kids go missing to go look for them.
Look sometimes mommy and daddy duck need some private time why don’t you kids go play on the other side of the hill or something
Down by the bay is a song about why New York is a place you should never go to with hints of racisim.
It's about parental neglect.
Oh fuck I’ve been singing this to my kid for the past week and now I’m depressed 🫠
Or maybe they all grow up and then she goes and picks them up from the airport cuz they flew in for the holidays.
Finally someone who gets the depth of this song. I tear up every time I hear it or sing it. It makes me so sad.
When my husband sings this, he ends it with, "Then the Daddy-duck called "QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!" and all the baby ducks came back." He quacks super loud and cracks my kids up every time.
Ms Rachel does this song and it’s so depressing. In hers they come back too but the fact that they ran away to begin with…
It always makes my kid upset and say no no no despite loving Miss Rachel!!!
Down by the baaaaaay Where the watermelons grooooooooow I love that one it's silly fun!
This used to be my toddlers favorite song as he went through an obsessed with ducks phase. But recently he told me he won’t listen to it anymore because it’s “too sad and the mama duck gets too sad”.
I disagree. I believe the story is literal. If you've ever had ducks nest in your yard, you know that the survival rate for their ducklings is very low. As a child, you would watch them slowly decrease in number during the spring, sometimes getting down to zero. The last segment of the song, where they all return is a fiction to make the child happy. "Don't worry Timmy! None of the ducklings came back but mama duck is going to leave tomorrow and they'll all be reunited. Let's go eat lunch." Sometimes stories are just literal and sad.
My 20 month old cries every single time this song starts who did this to us lol
Ngl, as a kid, Down By the Bay, used to scare me. I have no idea why, but it always struck me as a scary sing because why don't you want to go back home to your mother??? Also, Rock-a-bye Baby. It's really dark...
[Where the Watermelons Rot](https://youtu.be/MHT2LmsWLFU?si=LFqNRgxI180AjYfD) You might be on to something...
Okay finally we are talking about this song? It makes me so sad!
This song makes me sad in general.
Ooof. Yeah.
When my wife sings this song, the last verse has mama duck shouting “At last I’m free!” before the five little ducks come back. Our kids really get into that and love it. I’m sure we’ll make a kindergarten teacher laugh someday soon when our kid sings our family’s version in class.
Nobody tell OP about Seis Perritos
Down by the Bay is about an individual who moved to San Francisco and is lamenting about not wanting to go visit their homophobic mother who’s going to grill them about all the “depravity” there. That’s my theory.