Coffee and Tea
Molly, my sister and I fell out,
And what do you think it was all about?
She loved coffee and I loved tea,
And that was the reason we couldn't agree.
Some nursery rhymes are dramatic, some are moral, and then there are little verses like this one — tiny arguments about absolutely nothing. It has the same spirit as the kind of sibling quarrel adults overhear and have to struggle not to laugh at. The disagreement isn’t serious or meaningful. It’s just stubbornness wrapped in pride.
Coffee versus tea feels like a grown-up subject, which makes it even funnier. Two children acting as if their preferred drink is a non-negotiable principle of life gives the rhyme a playful, exaggerated tone. It’s the kind of argument where nobody remembers how it started, but everyone remembers being annoyed.
You’ll find plenty of verses like this in older children’s rhymes — small snapshots of ordinary family life with just the right amount of mischief. The disagreement here was probably forgotten five minutes later, but the rhyme treats it like a grand family feud. And that’s the joke: most quarrels aren’t about anything important at all. We squabble, dig in, declare victory… and then wonder what the fuss was about.
