Worst Nursery Rhyme Ever

Mama Kat Prompt: What do childhood rhymes even mean?  Write something that includes a rhyme you used to sing or say when you were a child.

I'm going to start with a rhyme that I did not sing or say as a child.  It's a rhyme that my daughter has in one of her nursery rhyming books.  I was reading through the book with her and when I read this rhyme, I was just shocked.  I call it the worst rhyme ever, but I am sure there are others I've never heard of.  It's called "Goosey Goosey Gander":

Goosey Goosey Gander, whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man who would not say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

What!?  So a goose is wandering around and throws an old guy down some stairs cause he won't say his prayers?  What a terrible lesson for children.  I wondered if this was a rhyme developed to scare children that if they didn't say their prayers some horror stalking goose would throw them down the stairs.  I looked the rhyme up and discovered that the earliest version doesn't have the throwing down the stairs part:

Goose-a goose-a gander, where shall I wander?
Up stairs and down stairs, in my lady's chamber;
There you'll find a cup of sack and a race of ginger.

Much better. Later, the rhyme changes to the first version I mention plus the addition of other lines:

The stairs went crack, he nearly broke his back.
And all the little ducks went, "Quack, quack, quack."

Even worse.  It turns out that the earliest version probably was combined with another rhyme about a crane fly:

Old father Long-Legs can't say his prayers:
take him by the left leg, and throw him downstairs.

It turns out no one really knows what the meaning of the rhyme is.  There is speculation that maybe it refers to the anti-Catholic propaganda of the reign of Henry VIII, that it is referring to finding a Catholic and throwing him down the stairs.  But that is pure speculation.  Regardless, I consider it a scary rhyme for a little child, whether warning them against Catholics or scaring them into saying their prayers, it's way too extreme.

Now for a rhyme that never made sense to me as a child, it's the classic Rock-A-Bye Baby:

Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetops,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

I always thought it was awful that the baby falls out of the tree to get seriously hurt or die.  Once again, all attempts to explain the origin of the rhyme are pure conjecture from American observation of native American customs to political intrigue to explaining the birthing process.  No one really knows, but in my opinion, it's another scary little rhyme.

What is interesting is that even though these rhymes have lost their meaning, they still persist.  I wonder why we haven't just thrown them out.  Any ideas?