Hearing a parent sing you a lullaby is an irreplaceable childhood memory, but now it seems that many children may be missing out as 57 per cent of UK dads look for a reason to avoid singing to their little ones, according to new research by Jo Jingles.
Parenting on Female First
The nationwide provider of music, singing and movement classes for babies and pre-schoolers found that dads are using a variety of excuses to avoid singing to their baby or toddler.
Many of the 700 fathers polled, said the reasons for not singing to their child are because they couldn’t sing; that they sing out of tune; or they feel embarrassed and out of their comfort zone, so would rather avoid it.
Caroline Crabbe, General Manager at Jo Jingles, said: “We really want to encourage more dads to sing to their children because it will help with their self-expression and confidence in later life.
“Most of us instinctively understand that babies and toddlers react positively to us when we sing songs to them, but what we may not fully appreciate is how those endless repetitions of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” are a fundamental part of our baby’s mental, physical and social development, helping to “wire up” their brains ready for speech development.”
The findings also revealed that dads are happy to sing along to their favourite tunes on the radio, but won’t sing nursery rhymes because they feel that there are plenty of musical toys that can do the singing for you.
The research was carried out in a bid to break down barriers and encourage more dads to benefit from the bonds of trust and communication that are strengthened through involving a child in regular singing and musical activities from an early age.
Caroline added: “Most of the reasons cited in our research suggest a real lack of confidence in dads to express themselves through this kind of singing with most of the excuses linked to feelings of embarrassment and awkwardness.
“The revelation that you can’t sing like a professional is, in reality, the case for most of us but it doesn’t matter. There is nothing your little one loves more than the sound of mum/dad singing to them and if you sing a bit out of tune, trust me, they won’t mind at all.”
Other reasons dads avoided singing included 10 per cent who felt that singing to their child wasn’t very ‘manly’ and was more natural for mums; so they preferred to leave the singing to their partner.
Further research has also proven that singing to your baby/child can help develop the early processes that will give him/her the tools they need to investigate the world, such as language, creativity and social skills.
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