Title: “Be Patient”

General Information about Item:

• Lullaby: Verbal Folklore   
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: M.”K.” A.
• Spring, Texas
• September 2006
• Collected: November 7, 2021

Informant Data:

• M. “K.” A. is a Caucasian 20-year-old junior on the Dartmouth Women’s Volleyball team. K.A. was born in Grapevine, Texas but was raised in Spring, Texas by her father Stacey, and her mother Susan. Both her parents are accountants, and her family practices Catholicism. She is a Quantitative Social Science Major and Studio Art Minor, and in her free time, K.A. enjoys playing her ukulele and practicing volleyball.

Contextual Data:

Social Context:

• K.A was with her dad at an ice cream parlor when she was six years old, and her ice cream was taking a while, making her get very upset. She was about to throw a tantrum and make a fuss in the ice cream parlor when her dad pulled her aside and started singing this lullaby to her. The lullaby helped calm her down and made her feel better about her not having her ice cream. After this experience, her dad sang her this song before bed if she was particularly upset about not being able to fall asleep. 

Cultural Context:

• The lullaby uses repetition and a soft tone of voice to help soothe the child. It also mentions God being patient, which shows how religion can be incorporated into lullabies if the family is religious. “Be Patient” can help get a child to calm down in many different situations because it is trying to help a child do as the name suggests, be patient, which applies to many different scenarios in a child’s life.

Lullaby Text:

Be patient, be patient

Don’t need to start a hurry,

When you are, impatient

You only start to worry,

Be patient, be patient

Because God is patient too,

Remember all the other times

When others have to wait on you!

Audio:

Informant’s Comments:

“This lullaby was an integral part of my childhood because I was a very impatient kid, so my parents, and more specifically my father, sang it to me all of the time.”

Collector’s Comments: 

It is interesting to see how religion can impact the lullabies that a child will listen to. Other informants who were not raised religiously, and their lullabies do not mention God.

Collector: Piper Stevens

Tags:

• Verbal Folklore
• English Lullaby
• Dartmouth
• Students
• Patience