You Know You're AP When. . .

You find yourself analyzing Christmas carols and critiquing them for their views of children. Take "Away in a Manger", for example:

Away in a manger,

No crib for His bed,

The little Lord Jesus

Laid down His sweet head;

The stars in the heavens

Looked down where He lay,

The little Lord Jesus

Asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing,

The poor Baby wakes,

But little Lord Jesus,

No crying He makes.

I love Thee, Lord Jesus;

Look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle

Till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus;

I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me I pray!

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care,

And fit us for Heaven

To live with Thee there.

When we came to the line about Jesus not crying when disturbed from His sleep, my thought wasn't "how sweet!", but "ugh, again with the association of a "good" baby not crying. I bet this carol is Victorian!"  I therefore had to look it up and found that it was composed in the US in that time period.  

I suppose I should just listen to it as a sweet little song, but the idea that a "good" baby being one that doesn't cry has always irritated me.  People ask me if Leo is good, and I say "what else would he be?" Once, when I said that, a lady retorted that she got the criers, molding that her babies hadn't been "good".  I would argue that point.  Of course Leo cries - he has gallstones and is in pain!  But he is also good, because he cannot choose otherwise. Jesus, of course, has always been good, but I'll also bet that even He cried as a baby.