I absolutely cannot stand nursery rhymes. I don’t see why you have to repeatedly subject both baby and parent to such sickly sweet and banal songs. There are plenty of modern tunes from my own music collection that contain upbeat melodies which I’m sure appeal to young ears. I’m adamant that my baby daughter gets exposed to a wider musical variety than the Grand Old Duke of York or Humpty Dumpty.

Our musical journey started while we were breastfeeding. MTV2 ran a series of programmes featuring songs from my student days, Oasis and Nirvana Top 10 tracks of all time. It reminded me of the confidence I am capable of and restored it there and then. Such a simple idea but in those first months of motherhood you do struggle for those eureka! moments when you have so much going on. One morning she was restless between feeds but I was trying to space them out and need to occupy her for 45 minutes. I held her tightly and spun softly round the room slowly building a playlist on iTunes, which was to become our soundtrack. Sure enough, she was captivated enough that she held out longer.

It became clear when we introduced singing into our daily routine, we breezed through many ups and downs. When she grumbles as a dress her, I burst into a lively version of ‘Get Ready’ by The Temptations, she’s so motivated by it I can quickly stuff the arm in the sleeve with no fuss. When she has trouble with daytime naps, I sing Jeffrey Lewis’s ‘Seattle’ in a soft voice, as the lyrics are fast but softly flow. A friend of mine even confided that she could only get her baby daughter to sleep to ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ by The Verve!

Of course, I realise I’m trying to build a mummy music fantasy. In the future, she will probably feel the same way about my music as I do now about nursery rhymes. I have visions of her as a teenager, coming home from school with a spotty bloke in designer trainers and disappearing up to their room to mix drum and bass records. Oh the horror! Maybe it will bode well for me, however, that my sister and I will always love to hear my Dad singing All I Have to Do Is Dream by the Everly Brothers, as he sung it to get us to sleep when we were young.

For now, I’m cashing in on the moments she wriggles along to The Rapture while I try to teach her how to play ‘air’ cow bell. At least she can’t utter the words ‘Mum, you are so embarrassing’ just yet.

If like me, you need a crash course in fun baby songs try Baby Boogie at City libraries.

No lobotomy required.