The Turkish lullaby E bebegim e

With this article, I would like to tell you about sweetness and E bebeğim e, that is the Turkish lullaby. What’s sweeter than a mother putting her child to sleep? It is one of the most universal and natural gestures in the world.

In any part of the world, mothers put their little one to sleep in one way or another.  I, in fact, want to talk to you about how we, Turkish mothers, put to sleep our little ones whispering E bebeğim e, the Turkish lullaby.

I state that in Turkey, children are not considered kings or queens, with the power to have everything at once. From an early age, they are taught  Turkish customs.

With this I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but it is clear that for example to teach hand kissing, or to transmit the unwritten code, of the behaviour to be adopted in the presence of adults or the elderly, you have to start from a very young age.

The Turkish lullaby

Going back to the way we put our babies to sleep, this surprises a lot of people. In fact, in Turkey we don’t rock babies for hours and hours like in other countries.

With us, we use our legs, we sit on the ground, stretch our legs and place a large pillow on them, where the child  will  lay .

You don’t walk around the house with your baby in your arms, but you stand still in one place in the house. Maybe in the living room to watch TV and relax, or read a book. In short, it is a much less stressful way. Of course we remain seated on the ground for some time, but we have our hands free to do more. I took the opportunity to eat  sunflower seeds or leblebi, or just read some magazines.

Once the baby is settled on the pillow, we begin to swing our legs in a rhythmic way, whispering “E bebeğim e…” as in the song that I propose to listen to interpreted by Nilufer.

Anecdote

My mom always put me asleep swinging on her legs. I looked at her and felt the of her “e bebeğim e …” of her. I confess that even when she no longer needed to swing me on her legs, because I was already old enough, I asked her to do it and sing.

Dear mothers, and why not, dear fathers, I suggest you try to put your little ones to sleep with this Turkish technique. It will be less stressful for sure, but it will also be a magical moment, your baby will fall asleep looking at his parent’s face.