Babies Don’t Keep Poem (Inspiration for Mothers)
Growing up, I remember a snippet of a sweet poem hung in my Grandma’s house. The part that always stuck with me was “I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep”.
I feel like when I was a little girl I had big dreams about the kind of mother I was going to be. I thought I was going to always be present, patient, and fun with my children. I would never complain about getting up with my babies in the middle of the night and I would handle toddler temper tantrums with grace. On top of all of that perfect mothering, I was always going to have a perfectly immaculate, clean house. However, having my first child quickly humbled me. I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn’t do it all.

I stumbled upon the whole poem by Ruth Hamilton recently and it has led me to ponder how my outlook on motherhood has changed now that I’m a mother as well as re-evaluate what my daily priorities are. Here is Ruth’s poem (I found the whole poem here), called “Song for a Fifth Child”:
Song for a Fifth Child
By Ruth Hulburt Hamilton
Mother, o Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullabye loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait til tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
My thoughts
The newborn phase is one of my favorites because I feel like it’s acceptable to just hold and rock and feed your baby all day. But as they got older, I felt like there was more pressure to do it all. I’m not going to sit here and tell you to never clean your house again because you need to go rock your baby. Cleaning the house is important. Rocking your babies is important. It’s all important work. And you know what? I know that you will know what is most important in each moment, each hour, and each day. You can trust your mother’s intuition. Your everyday efforts of motherhood make a difference.
I love rocking my babies. I also love putting them down to sleep in their crib so I can have a minute of quiet time to myself.

I love having a clean house. I also love leaving dirty dishes in the sink or a pile of laundry on the couch in the living room so I can rock my baby (or play with my toddler or read a book or get outside).
You’re doing enough, mama. Everyone says to enjoy every moment but sometimes that feels impossible when you’re drowning as a new mom. I would challenge that with “Enjoy what you can”. One day you will look back on those hours in the rocking chair and maybe you’ll miss it. Maybe you won’t. Enjoy what you can and it’s okay that it’s hard. I’m here with you. Rock your babies because babies don’t keep.
If you need more inspiration, check out my post on 10 ways to find joy in motherhood when things feel hard.

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