Speaking of Children

                Speaking of Children

Summary

        Speaking of Children is an extract from a celebrated volume, 'Mother's Day or the view from in here,' by Barbara Holland. In this extract the writer points out the advantages of single child and the disadvantages of plural children. She argues in favor of having a single child for peace, privacy and prosperity in married life.

    Single child is just like an organ of the parents body. The child can be taught anything, taken anywhere and brought up anyway. With a single child, the parents are still themselves. They do not need to modify their former lifestyle. A single child is just like an electric toothbrush or Yorkshire terrier. It means the parent merely acquired an extra thing. As a single child is outnumbered by the parents, the child can easily be brain washed.

     Plural children introduce adverse culture into the family. They litter the living room bringing in all the play things. The parents have to dine earlier and shorten their journey because of their children. They have to waste their time talking to people whom they would never meet if they didn’t have children. Their children use the telephone more often then their parents. Gradually, the parents are pushed back from their lifestyle to the lifestyle of their children.

    The writer says that peace, privacy and a couple of martinis are essential to make married life happy but with plural children the dream of having these things never comes true in one's life. A mother has to spend sometime with her husband in privacy. But with plural children it turns out to be entirely impossible. When a mother starts conversing with her husband, the children also appear demanding to talk to their father. They listen to secret conversations of their parents. The children also demand to drink drinks of their father. This way, the mother with plural children cannot share her private feelings with her husband in privacy.

      Of course there are some alternatives, for the parents to communicate with each other. They can write notes to each other, use telephone or speak in the language their children don’t understand. But these alternatives cannot solve all the problems caused by plural children.

Questions

   1.   Does this essay speak in favor or against having many children? Give reason.

     The given article has been written by one of the prominent female American writers of the modern times- Barbara Holland. She has presented an account of the activities of a single child or plural children in a family. The first sentence of this article clearly states the writer's intention and the theme of the article as well. The writer seems to have written this article on the basis of her own experience. Overall, she tends to suggest that having a single child in a family is much better than having plural children.

     Holland never seemed to be in favor of having many children although herself did have more than two children. She depicts that having plural children certainly does have some advantages, such as – children don’t suffer from loneliness, through children parents can have their social circle and relations enhanced and enlarged. But on the other hand, there are a no. of disadvantages of having plural children. She says according to her, the parents of plural children do have to face a number of problems. They have to bear huge expenses for the upbringing and education of their children. Often in parties, functions or public places, their children often create noises. They are almost sure to destroy or smash  some valuable thing at such places and the parents have to feel odd and insulted for such activities. Besides, the parents of plural children have to spend a lot of time on their many children. Therefore, such parents often look depressed and gloomy.

   But, the most fatal and disappointing factor for the parents of plural children is that, their private life is disturbed they don’t have time and opportunity to spend some time together privately, because whenever they tried for this they are sure to be disturbed by one or the other of their children. The writer cites her own experience and says that she and her husband often sought opportunities to sit and meet together privately outside away from home because whenever they remained at home they were always disturbed by their children.

          Thus, we see that Barbara Holland has been outright against having plural children since she herself was a victim of her own plural children.

   2.   Analysis of the poem

    Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling that take its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility.