Although a bachelor all his life, Ravel loved the company of children. With little Jean and Mimie Godebski, in particular, he would spend hour after hour. It was to them that he dedicated his sequence of five pieces enfantines collectively titled Ma mere l'Oye (Mother Goose), and properly so, since it had been for the personal pleasure the he conceived this most enchanting of all fairytale works of art. It was first composed for piano 4-hands and was written at the wonderful summer retreat, La Grangette (the Little Barn), where his personal friends and parents of little Jean and Mimie, Cyprien and Ida Godebski, would spend their summers.

It was the celebrated publisher, Jacques Durand, who, as a guest at La Grangette one summer, happened to arrive while Ravel was busily occupied with his playmates. It was at that moment that the two young children were dispatched to the piano for a performance of some fanciful programmatic music that Ravel had whipped up for them the day before. It was all in good fun, but Durand was impressed enough with the little display that he approached Ravel and encouraged him to create something more serious. That very afternoon Ravel sat down and began to rework his little pieces.

As the music took shape, it occurred to Ravel that the Godebski children might be persuaded to play their little pieces on the occasion of the first public performance of the new work. When the children were first approached they were terrified and did all they could to beg, plead and in many cases cry to not play in public. But Ravel persisted and in the end demanded that they play. But to no avail the children simply refused. Pursuant to Ravel's belief that Ma Mere l'Oye should first be performed by children, since it was written for children, the work was introduced at the Salle Gaveau, Paris, on April 20th, 1910, with Jeanne Leleu (age 6) and Geneviève Drony (aged 10).

It was later in the summer of 1911, at the urging of choreographer Jeanne Hugard, that Ravel conceived of a ballet of the same title. To this end he transcribed his 4-hand score and augmented it with a Prelude, a Danse du rouet, and various interludes. The ballet was premiered on January 28th, 1912 at the Theatre des Arts.