The Messed Up Origins of The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe 

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I always thought that it didn't make sense that an old woman could have so many young children. I never thought the children were hers biologically. I thought she ran an orphanage and the rythme was about what orphanages were like.

0:46 The version I heard as a kid: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe who had so many children she didn't know what to do. So she fed them all gruel, without any bread, and whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed." Have also heard "kissed them all sweetly" but am pretty sure that's the nicer version.

There was an old woman who lived in a house. She had 6 kids but one had moved out. She fed them all well, and tended their needs. But Mama damn sure was smoking some weed.

I learnt it as: there was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do, so she gave them some broth without any bread then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. I hadn’t heard the sanitised version with bread and kissing. It was a nursery rhyme about poverty to me

I remember when it was common to tie old shoes and tin cans to the back bumper of a newlywed's car, as they drove away from the church.

When I was a kid I asked my mom why did the Woman spank the kids after dinner, before bed and my mom said that it used to be an old practice to "swat a kid's bottom" before bed because it would make them cry... which, in turn, would cause them to cry themselves to sleep QUICKER than just putting them to bed ESPECIALLY if their bellies were not full... WOW. I know, right...

A lot of fairytales were rather dark and morbid and many didn't have happy endings as they were meant to serve as a warning for children. Also the concept of a happy ending is a modern concept. This is why a lot of stories in mythology and from very ancient civilizations rarely had a happy ending. They were meant to reflect the brutal realities of daily life.

I was a child in the 'sixties, and the version I heard was closest to the earliest one: "...so she gave them some broth without any bread / And she spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed." I figured it was an insulting, classist rhyme about a promiscuous poor woman, her bastard children, and negligent, abusive parenting - but maybe it was just normal parenting in the 16th century.

The word Coffin has another meaning back in the colonial days; a coffin was a pasty crust. Maybe she was going out for food and she came home to find the kids goofing off?

The one I learned There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do. So she gave them some broth, without any bread, she whipped them all soundly, and sent them to bed.

I've loved this version from MAD magazine sometime in the early 70's- There was an old woman who lived in a shoe She had so many children she didn't know what to do Her doc prescribed pills but they cost too much loot So she's still having kids but she's moved to a boot.

When I was in kindergarten in 1964, in my classroom they was a wooden Little Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe playset that was supposed to help the kids in my class learn how to tie shoes. Every morning as we entered the classroom room, each of us would try to properly tie the big red shoestring that was laced in the toy wooden shoe.

This is what my mother told me about The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. She said that it was a way of saying the Old Woman lived on a she string budget. Why her budget was so tight was the number of kids she had. She feed them what little she could, but when the kids cry about being hungry the Old Woman would beat them, then send them to bed.

When I was little I had a puzzle of the rhyme and heard it but it had different wording and the woman seemed to be a bit more motherly“ There was a old woman who lived in a shoe she had so many children she didn’t know what to do so she fed them some stew without any bread then read them a story and sent them off to bed” Actually I think I’ve heard a couple versions. One where the woman beats her children and one where her children put themselves to bed. Also I found your channel a couple years ago and now I annoy everyone around me with the messed up origins of things.

NOT the one I grew up with. She was poor, over bred and seemed angry about it. Left with like 10 kids, all under the age of like 9 and alone. Her home was always set apart from the town and she was always way too old to be their mom. I was told she was most likely a government child farmer on a shoe string budget and most likely ate nearly nothing herself. That she may have even been about those old women that killed the kids too.

Hi Jon, the shoe throwing tradition started with the shoes being thrown at the bride by her parents since they aren't responsible for her anymore. Glad this isn't traditional anymore, my mom had a wicked pitching arm!!

I always interpreted it as a widowed mother who was so poor she lived in a house so tiny it was compared to living in a shoe. A house too small for her and all her children, more of whom than she could afford to take care of. And, instead of allowing them to slowly starve to death and suffer, she fed them poisoned broth without bread so that there would be nothing to soak up the poison inside their bellies. And, they all went to bed and died peacefully in their sleep.

That nursery rhyme was about me and my 7 crazy a**kids😂😂😂😂

Also, I, too, was raised on the "spanked them all soundly" version. I always took it as a cautionary rhyme. Like, I always though it was created to warn those kids of the olden days, that if they didn't behave, they'd get punished. Spanked and sent to bed without supper. As for the old woman and shoe, I didn't think much into that, as a kid. But, as an adult, I just thought about how families in old times often had many kids (no birth control, religious reasons, etc), and the shoe could be a metaphor, like you said, for a tiny, cramped, dirty living space, which was where a lot of poor families spent their lives. And they often *didn't* know what to do with their big families, and all their kids. Money was often tight, not enough to buy food (broth without bread), and they often didn't have much security, of any kind. So maybe the shoe could represent transient housing/lifestyle, as well. Always traveling, living in temporary housing-like tents, or shacks one built with their hands. And I never thought about the old lady's husband at all, but people died young, in those days. The world was very dangerous. So maybe he died, and left her broke, and trying to raise a bunch of kids (never knew the number, though you said it was eight), and she really *didn't* know what she was gonna do. Just my take, looking at its possible literal representations. But maybe I'm just thinking way too into it, lol.

The little old lady that lives in a Jordan.

The nursery rhyme book I had as a child had the "whipped them" version in it. I didn't realize that it'd been changed over the years. I just figured that the rhyme just wasn't included in books anymore. Hell, I didn't think kids learned nursery rhymes at all, anymore. It seems old fashioned compared to what kids read these days.

I always thought "lived in a shoe" was a euphemism for 'sex worker'..?

Funny, I grew up knowing the original with the spanking. I have an old mother goose book given to me when I was a baby...in the 70s, and the spanking one is in that book. I did not even know there was a "good version".

This is one of my favorites. This is how I remember it. There was an old woman That lived in a shoe She had so many chlidren She didn’t know what to do So she gave them all Butter Without any bread Whipped them all soundly A sent them to bed

Different versions of this rhyme just feels like different types of mothers and their parenting styles.

Jon, I appreciate you so much, every once in a while sprinkling in a nice, nostalgic "remember" for us four weirdos who still care 😁

Grew up with the version “spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed,” and my mom had a friend who had a difficult time as a single mom raising a lot of kids in an apartment, so my child brain assumed the story was about a struggling older single mother or grandmother in some sort of shoe house (I think I imagined a boot house like my storybook illustrated, and figured it was a play on words of a house so small it was like a shoebox) with so many kids it was difficult to feed them, and out of frustration from her situation and their rowdy behavior in a small space she finally lost her cool, spanked them, and sent them to bed so they’d be quiet and still and she’s have a moment of peace. It’s fascinating how we can all take a few lines of something and come up with our own interpretations depending on our introduction and what our situation was when first learning of the tale.

Little miss muffett... I just realized, you've missed Andrew Dice Clay's versions in your nursery rhyme series. Updates please!! Thanks for the laughs!!

“She gave them some broth without any bread, then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed”. This was the version I was taught as a child. I remember asking what the children did to be punished, and thought the old women unfair

The kids where still “Loafing” means they where still not moving around, just loafing where they had been laying when she left. My cat thinks it’s a cute way of saying “dead”.

Aged 3 in 1986/87, my nursery rhyme book always read; "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children she didn't know what to do, She gave them some broth without any bread, Then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed." My daughter born 2002 had exactly the same version. This is UK btw. But i have never in my life heard any of these nicer versions! Strange!

Honestly, with how the old nursery rhymes often are, after hearing the "she had so many children, she didn't know what to do" line I was expecting the broth to be laced w poison in the original version

I think if you're looking for a royalty tie-in, Maria Carolina (Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily during the 1960s-1810s) fits better then George II. She turned Naples into a police state (after her sister Marie Antoinette was executed after the French revolution) and set up a secret police to spy on the public to make sure she didn't meet a similar fate. I think that could fit with "she gave them some broth. without any bread, she whipp'd all their bums, and sent them to bed." As she was running the country which would involve giving the public the necessities but not going out of her way to make them happy (she was counter-revolution, dismissive of The Enlightenment which was a major society shift happening at the time.) Then the whipping them and sending them to bed could be the secret police who was constantly on guard and patrolling whilst she would accuse people (a lot of them freemasons) or committing treason, she was so terrified of being overrun and killed like her sister it overtook her life and mental state. I also think this works with "She had so many children she didn't know what to do" so many subjects to supervise and make sure weren't plotting against her. She spent her time during this period of Naples being a police state moving between houses so no one would know where she is any given time and hiring food-testers to make sure she and her family weren't being poisoned. There's also the living in a shoe and Italy looks like a boot thing (though an argument could be made that living in a shoe could be a reference to how she was always packed and on the move, living in her shoes to leave at a moments notice.) It's also not impossible to believe that English people would make a rhyme about Maria Carolina. As during the French revolution and Napoleonic wars Naples was allied with Britain. Meaning the British public probably knew what was going on in Italy (Naples) as it was all relevant considering the were in a war (also wouldn't surprise me if the police state was used as an example and a threat, "don't start revolting lest you want this..." though that's purely speculative.) It would be a bit fast for a rhyme to be made and published about all this considering it hinges on what happened post Marie Antoinette's death (October 1793, the police state started in 1793 so I have to imagine it was immediately after.) But I don't think it would be impossible as it could have gotten popular very quickly and people wanted to document it as a way to document public reactions to their immediate history. And we have legends and myths that get created today that seemingly spring from nowhere and get documented almost immediately (i.e. internet Creepypastas and their Wiki's.) I think tying any historical figures to nursery rhymes and fables of the time is always going to be a bit of a stretch, folklore is just too weird and hard to take in metaphorically however you chose to interpret it. She's just personally my favourite candidate for royal inspiration. I hope this made sense it's hard to convey this over a RU-vid comment😅 I also couldn't give as much detail about her as I'd like, but I'd recommend researching her it's really interesting. Also she was seen as the ruler because despite being Queen Consort her husband wasn't really bothered about ruling a kingdom so she took over his roles becoming essentially the sole ruler of Naples. This is one of the reasons why I prefer her as the source of inspiration than George allegedly having a nickname of "old lady".

In the British versions of the oldest of this rhyme At the end.. " She beat ( or whipped) them all soundly & put them to bed " There wasnt, Broth in name, in the early centuries so much as Gruel which was a thin mixture of bread with warmed milk over it Or a thin version of porridge. Pottage was a thick vegetable soup which was more common to mid to upper class food Many titles persons ate an evening meal of Pottage. It was a known fact that smacked or bottom hitting ensured children would cry from their pain & cry themselves to Sleep much earlier than hungry bellies would! Most of the nursery rhymes had cruel or sinister back stories! Thanks 🇬🇧👧

As a child I was told the version of them being whipped to bed and I wondered what the word whip meant and why she did that. I think she gave me an answer like, “I don't know maybe they were being naughty.” I also used to wonder why she lived in a shoe and how big that shoe was to fit humans.😅

Wasn't coffin another term for a baked pie? The old woman who lived in a sho was Mrs Lovitt's mom. ipso facto, this nursery rhyme was a prequel to Sweeney Todd, lol.

My candidate for the old woman would be Queen Anne. She had seventeen children, although none of them lived. "Kissed themm all fondly and put them to bed," sounds like saying a funereal goodbye...

Yeah as a Christian I don't believe you have to put Christ in everything because he already is apart of everything. Accept him as your lord and savior follow his Commandments to live a happy life that's all he asks. Don't have to go walk around beating people over the head with the Bible

Like Mike Shelley, I also remember the cars with the shoes and cans attached... and it remember the oldest version being told to me rather than any other version (which all sound weird to me), as they didn't pad and sugarcoat my generation. My mom and aunts used to say that rhyme when ever a bunch of us were getting on their nerves running all about as a way of saying that if we didn't settle down they were gonna settle us down and we would miss out on whatever we were all riled up about. Good times, good times...😅

I just love your channel Jon and I just wanted to say that the version I was taught as a child was 'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do. So she gave them some broth without any bread, then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.' I've never come across the sweeter version you knew as a child.

The version I and my brothers grew up with said " she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed." My mother had 7 of us and was a strict disciplinarian. She quoted this nursery rhyme to us a lot. 😅

I grew up with “she gave them all broth, without any bread, Then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. Is it any wonder I hated this nursery rhyme?

The one I remember is “There once was a woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread then whipped them all soundly and sent them off to bed”.

I always thought the shoe reference was less about budget/wealth and more about size/social status. The old woman and the children were so small they lived in a shoe instead of a house. Broth without bread because she fretted too much to spend the time to make the bread (or money for the household). She whipped them before bed to make sure at least some of them were disciplined once a day (which at that time was - so I was told - part of a parent's expected duty).

I had always heard that "living in the shoe" was slang for a hobo, and that all the references to her children was some kind of commentary on her promiscuity.

4:58 sounds like lamb to the slaughter 💀💀

In the version I first heard, the Little Old Woman gave her children some broth without any bread, then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

The wipping them and sending them to bed was the one i knew. Similar to the Pigs getting eaten in the 3 little pigs

Sending to bed is censorship, it refers to punishment but completely mixes it up with setting it at the evening. The rhyme is about the kids being unruly IN THE MORNING, so the mother doesn't bake them bread. She leaves them at their own devices when she goes to town, to trade as a basket lady, that's what coffin means. And whatever is the meaning of a-loffeing that's what you get when you raise them with a bonk to the head. Dutch loef (Middle Dutch lof) "the weather side of a ship". Aloof, "at a distance but within view" (1530s) and, figuratively, "apart, withdrawn, without community spirit". Origins of the name of Monkey D. LUFFy

The version that I heard had her whipping them all soundly and sent them to bed

“This broad is crazy” “eight kids” Yea, that checks out

i always heard it as "whipped them all soundly" myself.

I disagree with the stance on Oral Stories; I feel they have just as much weight as written history. An if written history isn't recorded like on paper are told like Indigenous People's in the America's that have their own system of recording key moments within their Nation's History. Storytelling has much to do with teaching the next generation their history. The thing i found fascinating is how Africa recorded its history within various Clan's and Nation's. Take for instance The Movie Reese Witherspoon did in 2014 ah? The Good Lie (remember when Russia invaded Ukraine?), starts off picture perfect typical day in Sudan Boys watching The families Cattle as two brother's record their Family History not by paper; but, by memorizing it in The Soil of Sudan, argument ensues siblings being sibling's tussell because younger sibling made a mistake in sighting orally a Family member in History placed else where in the Family tree. The war that'll give rise too The Lost Children of Sudan in 1983 (boy is Africa going through world's challenge's in Ethiopia a massive out break of a Famine takes place. In the 80s AIDS is the Virus to fear catching don't know what it is killing marginalized communities outskirts of society 1981 they finally change name G.R.I.D (Gay related infectious diseases), to AIDS (Acquired Immune Defiency Syndrome), same year I was born. Worse time for The Outbreak of AIDS; because people have too put up with Ronald Reagan as U.S. President while in England, The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister of England. Like Reagan both would develop Alzheimer's Disease. getting back to the movie The Good Lie 2014 in the end one of The Lost Boy's goes back in search of his sibling same one he wrestled as a child. He knelt down on one knee and inscribed in the soil the Families History; which would be a Test to see who would know there families oral story going back generation's. The Brother was in the refugee camp and He finished The Families Oral Story! I've watched documentaries such as PBS Eye's on The Prize/The Great Depression/Ken Burns The Dust Bowl; Dr. Henry Louis Gates. Jr's Africa many rivers too cross/Reconstruction Era/Life After MLK; Finding your Root's/& The History of The Black Church: This is Our Story. There are written account's there are too Oral History that never makes it into The History Book's. Like while watching Holocaust Documentaries The Survivor's Oral Stories their experience's. This is why, I find this method Oral History to be just as relevant as The Written Word. I do remember reading something while in the 11th grade that Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes were a series of Coded Messages. Take your pick. Rock a bye Baby/Peter, Peter Pumpkin eater had a wife and couldn't keep her (she was probably cheating on Him) God be with Her; if it was Peter the Great, wrong timeline? probably! Little Bo Peep lost her Sheep, London Bridge is falling Down/3 Little Kitten's Lost their Mitten's/ Rub a dub dub 3 Men in a Tub (okay Gay relation's?) or plotting against a Lord or King? Humpty Dumpty/Jack and Jill went up the Hill/Ole King Cole? not sure about The Billy Goat's Gruff; my mom turned the troll into a Drug Dealer pressuring me too use Drug's, I so enjoyed being the 3rd Billy Goat. Mom started teaching that lesson to me when I was 3 year's old and then she read me for bedtime The Book of Jonah in the Bible!

England DOES look like a shoe...even without tilting it...And Maps were originally, placed with East where we have North now.....and Marine Maps sometimes with South on top....The saying "living on a shoestring", means being poor...

She gave them some broth WITHOUT any bread and whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. UK 1960's. I understood it to be about a widow who couldn't afford to feed her children. The whipping part; I felt sorry for them but a belting was not an unknown occurrence in our family and was a normal child rearing practice.

Thank you for the awesome informative entertaining folk lore videos l!

A long time ago “coffin” was interchangeable with box or casket. The lady could have been picking up cigars in a coffin but equally possible is pie or pie crust (please see Tasting History with Max Miller). Thanks for the video.

I always heard she whipped them all soundly. Never heard bums or kisses either one. But i grew up being spanked and all kids I knew had been at one time or another. When I had my kids in 1989 and then 2001, i still had never heard the kissing either but I gave up the spanking. Now that they’re grown I kinda wished I maintained the tradition. No wonder kids have become so easily offended and with little resilience, military vets excepted, just saying. I don’t think I was traumatized for having been spanked by my mother or the nursery rhyme. In fact our cookie jar was a old boot with a chimney, door and a window with a little child’s head sticking his head out. So the cookies really softened whatever bad feelings I may have gotten from the rhyme.

Before the second World War, beating children was normal practice. The theories of Freud and other psychotherapists introduced the idea that what happens to us in childhood strongly influences our adult behaviour. However it wasn't until the 1950s that books about rearing kids in a caring way started to appear. People were so appalled by the cruelty and carnage of WWII, that everyone was searching for ways to raise less bloodthirsty people. The rhyme about the old woman is a useful reminder that poverty, crowded living conditions, lack of contraception and ignorance can result in horrible domestic violence. Looking after poor people is good policy.

Never heard "Broth with plenty of bread", or "kissed them all fondly." The version I heard back in the 80s, was "she gave them some broth, without any bread, and she whipped them all round, and sent them to bed!" There was even a display at a local kid's park called pet's corner in Derbyshire England, where you could go inside the shoe, and see the very unpleasant looking old woman, huge wooden spoon in hand, a spoon she apparently used both to cook her broth, and deliver whippings to her children :D.

I heard the "spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed" (no mention of food) in the 60s-70. I never heard the tame one before. I found my version (close) A book called,The Real Mother Goose, This is from the 70s.

I am most familiar with the oldest version, but the bum whopping verse I heard from my Mom is different: "she spanked them all soundly". The explanation I had been told was this: because she had so many mouths to feed and there's no man around, they were very poor. They were so crowded in their small home, it was as if they were horned into a shoe, (as one would horn their feet into shoes). Because "horned in" was commonplace to describe tight quarters, "shoe" became a common term for tiny accommodations. They were too poor and had no meat or vegetables to put into their broth to make soup, so they would not be going to bed feeling sleepy from full bellies. The spanking was to keep them in their beds and to help them be able to sleep, as crying is quite draining they would cry themselves to sleep.

Why not go with Beatrix Potter's theory: "You know the old woman Who lived in a shoe? And had so many children She didn't know what to do? I think if she lived in A little shoe-house That little old woman was Surely a mouse!"

Maybe it’s being born in the 70s but the misery rhyme I knew and was in my books growing up was: ‘there was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread, spanked them all soundly, and sent them to bed.’ Which is far closer to the original.

My childhood nursery rhymes book has the oldest rendition. That was back when Moms would hit you with a wooden spoon for any reason. Also my nuns, at my elementary school, would hit the back of student's hands for many different reasons. No paddling though.

I'm literally @ 2:46 in this vid and realized that I most likely grew up with the original version cause I was shocked when I read 'she gave them broth with bread' and she KISSED them. Naaaaahhhhhh that old lady gave them broth without bread and whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. Even the nursery rhyme book we had showed an image of one of the boys she was beating had a book in his pants and he was snickering. Gave the boys in my class the idea of putting their notebooks in their pants if they were expecting the belt that day

People don't give kids enough credit when it comes to figuring out what is real and what isn't. Remember the Roadrunner cartoons? The violence was over the top but we all knew that it wasn't real. 😂😂😂

There was an old woman, who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread and whipped them all soundly and send them to bed. (That's the version I knew growing up)

"Now would you believe me if I said there was an even darker version?" Well, I certainly don't think you're going to spend the next nine minutes of the video staring at me.

Hi!! I know u wont answer this or even see my comment but I cant help but ask if you would be willing to start making videos on japanese mythology?🥺🥺

"lived in a shoe" -- NOT a house, but a shoe -- meant she was homeless; her shoes were here home, she moved from place to place, and her children helped her beg. But they were not very good beggars, because the mother could not even afford bread. Sad story 😢

I've always been confused by this one. 🤔 Thank you for clearing some of it up. 😁 Keep up the great work!

I see nothing wrong with the Christian version .It's sad that you felt nauseated.

Could aloffeing also be 'loafing about'? I can see it being 'laughing' too (kinda reminds me of Scots) and idk if laugh and loaf have similar roots but it seems feasible. (Loafing can just mean loitering/playing around/lingering about, etc--'goofing off' basically)

Wow, the version I grew up with was "she gave them all broth with out any bread, beat them all soundly and sent them to bed."

What was England’s relationship with Italy? It could date back to England mocking Italy.

There's nothing wrong with the old woman spanking the children, its not cruel or inhumane. The children were spanked because they were bad.

The shoes being thrown at couples would make sense since you can see old photos of cars carrying newlyweds driving away with shoes attached to the bumper.

A coffin was the original name for a pie

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe She had so many children she didn't know what to do She fed them all broth without any bread Then beat them all soundly and sent them to bed" .. is the version I learned in a book I had as a child.

The older published one was what I grew up with. Except the final line was "she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed"

Bro, I was born in 06 and I grew up with the original version of the rhyme lmao 😂 I never knew there was another version 😅

Throwing shoes at a wedding, think about how with the advent of the automobile people would tie tin cans or shoes to the back of the newlyweds car

Was anyone else really confused until Jon read the oldest version? "The spanked them all soundly version was the only one I had ever heard.

The shoe thing's real. There's a line in a Charles Dicken's book, Sorry I can't remember which one. And an old lady throws a shoe at a newly married couple much like how we throw rice now as they leave the wedding breakfast. It was said in a way as though without it they couple wasn't really married and the old lady acted like it was a burden because her whole shtick was she was a lone norn woman.

My son and I spent some time making up new verses for this rhyme. Our favorite: There was an old woman that lived in a yurt, She had so many children she gave them dessert.

I learned the version that 'she gave them all broth without any bread, whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed'

Just out of curiosity because I live under a rock, but why is Christianity cringe?

I always heard the “beat them all soundly and sent them to bed” version. Always thought that was pretty harsh.

@Jon Solo my grandmother had 23 children and she wasn't crazy!

The version I learned was the 3 rd one you read. Only in my version she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.

I’m not that old but definitely was raised hearing a version where the kids go to bed hungry and beaten.

when my nanny and my mum said this one, it was "gave them a kiss on the top of the head, then smacked all their backsides and sent them to bed"

My grandma said she would only give them broth with no bread. And wip them to bed.

I really liked the nancy sinatra joke, got me off to a light start for what is sometimes a very terrible story.

This was one of my favorite nursey rhymes

My mom used this story to remind my brother's and I, that even though we don't have a lot of money and can't do things others kids we know can, it could always be worse.

The one I know says she whips them all soundly and sent them to bed. I've never heard the nice ones.

"she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed"...my mom's version