T he other day, I was passing by a local playground and stopped for a moment to watch the kids playing. Two of them were balanced on opposite ends of a seesaw, laughing hysterically as they bounced up and down.
Looking at them immediately unlocked a memory from my own childhood. The moment that plank of wood started moving, a familiar rhyme popped straight back into my head:
See saw, Mother-in-law,
Johnnie shall have a new master;
He shall have but a penny a day,
Because he can’t work any faster.
I’d bet good money those kids on the playground didn't know that rhyme. But even more than that, I’d bet they have no idea about the history behind it—because I certainly didn't when I was singing it as a child! And if I’m being completely honest, reader, I’m willing to bet you might not know the story behind it either.
It turns out that beneath this simple playground chant lies a fascinating bit of history stretching back hundreds of years.
1. It Started as a Work Song, Not a Game
Long before seesaws were made of brightly painted metal on padded rubber playground mats, "seesaw" wasn't a game at all—it was work!
Back in the 1700s (and even earlier), timber was cut using large, two-person hand saws. One worker stood above a log pit and the other below. To cut through heavy wood, the two workers had to pull the saw back and forth in a strict, steady rhythm.
To keep time and pass the long hours of hard physical labor, workers sang rhythmic chants. The back-and-forth motion of the saw created the see-saw rhythm we still chant today.
2. Who Was the Mother-n-law?
So, how does Mother-in-law play inter this song?
Well Mother-in-law is just a variation for the original name used in the rhyme. The original name was Margery Daw. BUt where and how did that name orginate?
In old English dialect, the word "daw" was slang for a lazy or untidy person. In the earliest printed versions of the rhyme (around the mid-1700s), Margery Daw was a character used as a cautionary tale for children:
See-saw, Margery Daw,
Sold her bed and lay upon straw...
The lesson was simple: if you were too lazy to work hard, you’d end up losing your comforts and sleeping on straw!
3. The "Penny a Day" and Apprentice Life
The second half of the rhyme shifts focus to young workers:
Johnnie shall have a new master;
He shall have but a penny a day,
Because he can’t work any faster.
In 18th-century Britain, young boys were often apprenticed to tradesmen to learn a skill. An apprentice who couldn't keep up with the saw or work quickly enough was paid a minimal wage—a single penny a day—or traded off to a new master.
What sounded to us as kids like a fun, bouncy poem was actually a reflection of the daily grind for child laborers centuries ago.
How it Moved to the Playground
Over time, as hand-saws were replaced by machinery and labor laws changed, the original meaning of the work song faded away. But the rhythmic back-and-forth cadence lived on. Children adopted the chant for their own back-and-forth game: riding a wooden plank balanced on a fulcrum.
By the time we were singing it on the playground, the sawmills, low wages, and old slang were long forgotten—leaving behind just the catchy rhythm that managed to cross generations.
Over to You!
Did you sing "See Saw, Margery Daw or mother-in-law" when you were growing up, or did your neighborhood have a different version of the words? What other classic nursery rhymes from your childhood do you remember chanting on the playground?
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