what does it mean?

Question

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

it's a verse from cats in the cradle...

Answer 1

The son who wants to spend time with his father which has no time for him because he is always busy. And in growing up the son himself shows the cycle repeated in becoming just like his dad.

Answer 2

This was a great song about how a father never spent any time with his son while he was growing up. The boy, who still loved and admired his father, wanted to grow and and be just like his father.

And...the son did just that. When his father got older and didn't work anymore, he wanted to spend time with his son and family. Unfortunately, the son was too busy.

And thus the son became just like his dad.

Cats in the Cradle, Little boy blue, and the man in the moon refer to folk tails often shared with children and the silver spoon referred to a rattle or teething item.

The moral is always take the time to spend wh\ith your children before it is too late and they have all grown up.

Answer 3

The first portion of the quote is from a well-known nursery rhyme. This invokes feelings of nostalgia, which is important for the overall tone of the song. The song itself is about missed time. The father was always too busy to play or spend time with his son when his son was a young boy. Now that time has passed, it is the father who is requesting the time with his son, but the son is now just like his father was. It is the author's view of the ironic outcome of reality. The father and son promise each other time, but never make it.

Answer 4

As you know, the cat's in the cradle is a song about a father's never being there for his son. This verse refers to nursery rhymes--showing that the son at this time is a young pre-schooler.

Answer 5

YAYYY!! i like this song =]

okay basically the song is about a son asking his father to spend time w/ him but the dad just responds back with vague promises of future quality time.

in this verse the papers are reversed, the son has grown up and desides to be like his dad and get a life of his own. the dad wants to spend time with his son and he asks "when will u come home, son?" and the son answers vaguely "i dont kno when, but well get together then" doing the same thing that his dad did to him when he was young. the line about the little boy blue just shows how the father is like a distant fictional character. =]

Answer 6

That verse is a man telling his aging father the same thing his father told him when he was young. The father never had time for his son and now that the father needs the son it is too late because the son doesn't have time for his father.

Answer 7

You have to take into consideration the previous wording in the earlier chorus. The song shows how life reverses itself. As the son was growing up, his father was always working and rarely there. Now, this verse is from the father view as his son has grown and rarely finds the time to visit his father.

It means, the son became his father.

Answer 8

According to Harry himself, his wife Sandy Chapin wrote the lyrics for Cat's In The Cradle, while she was pregnant with their first child as a warning to Harry not to miss his child growing up.

Answer 9

"Cat's in the Cradle," is a folk rock song by American singer/songwriter Harry Chapin. It appeared on Chapin's 1974 album Verities & Balderdash.

It was written by Harry's wife Sandy, a poet and writer, long before the birth of their son Joshua. When Sandy showed it to Harry, he had only casual interest. After Joshua's birth, Harry realized just how much the song meant to him and, after reworking the song, eventually recorded it. The song became the best known of Harry's work and a staple for folk rock music.

The story
The song is told in first person, and relates the story of a father who is too busy to spend time with his son. Though the son repeatedly asks him to join in childhood activities, the father always responds with little more than vague promises of future quality time. Meanwhile, the son grows up loving and admiring his father but decides to be 'like him' in that he will get on with his own life. This is seen in the 3rd verse where the father asks the son to sit for awhile but the son asks for the car keys instead. The son is now starting to become like his father in the sense that he won't have much time to spend with his father. This final realization dawns on the father in the final verse.

Years pass and the lonely, aging father finally desires to spend time with his child. Hoping to make up for lost time, he reaches out to him. The son however has grown up and begun his own life; he warmly responds that he is now too busy with his own work and family to spend time with (or even talk to) his father. Like his father once had, the son promises that someday in the future they will spend time together. The last verse ends with the lines "I'd love to dad if I could find the time/You see my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu/But it's sure nice talking to you, dad … And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me/He'd grown up just like me/My boy was just like me …". This indicates that, as the father sadly realizes, the son has taken after the father in that he has become too occupied with his own family to spend time with his father, who now has the time for him.



The verse to which you refer is a memory of childhood things, nursery rhymes like:-

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed just to see such fun
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

This is s memory of the father thinking about how he neglected his childhood son who now, in turn is neglecting him. The story has gone full circle. The son now has no time to spend with his elderly father.

Answer 10

Just about the time you are old enough to realize that your father wasn't an idiot, you have a son who's old enough to think you are.