Characters
Summary
Long-
Question
1. Describes the writer's attitude to
plural children.
[Or,] What
does Barbara Holland say about having many children?
[Or,] How
does Barbara Holland express her feeling about having many children?
2. Why is Barbara Holland in favour of a
single child?
Short-Questions
1. What are the disadvantages of having
plural children?
2. Argue why child spacing (gap between
the children) may be important for a happy family life.
3. Does Barbara Holland speak in favour
or against having many children? Give reasons.
15. Speaking of Children
Barbara Holland
Characters
Speaker : essayist, the essay writer
Talking About : Advantages
and disadvantages of having a child and more children
One Sentence Summary
One child does not obstruct the freedom of parents whereas plural children force them to follow a certain way of life.
Summary
In the essay 'Speaking of Children' Barbara Holland gives her view on having a single and more children. She is in favour of a child, because there are a lot of advantages to both parents and the child.
A child can be taken everywhere. She says that parents get a lot of leisure time for themselves. They get freedom and they can talk their private affairs without any disturbance. They can educate and rear the child the way they like. They can spend money for his/her proper education, diet and clothing. It is not difficult for them to fulfil his/ her desires. They can go to the social gathering with the child and they can also make tours and travels.
On the other hand, there are many disadvantages of having many children. The parents have to look after them. They have to spend a lot of money on their education, food and clothes. They never get leisure time to talk private affairs. The children fight and quarrel. They make the rooms dirty with play things. The children always disturb the parents. There is no secrecy of the parents' talks. Social gathering, tours and travels etc. are beyond the reach of the parents. They have to use telephone or a private language to talk secret things.
OUTLINE OF ESSAY
Having more than a child is a burden in a family. One child is outnumbered and easy to manage. Plural children weaken the pleasure and peace in the family. The family life can be disturbed by the plural children and the situation can be very worst. Mutual understanding, co-operation, love and harmony are almost impossible. The parents become tired and they can unable to control the family and destructive situation comes in final. The children make the house untidy and dirty, break things and produce unwanted noise. The consequences of having plural children cause the adverse impact in the family. The family status decrease day by day regarding social, economic and cultural factors. One child is appendage (addition, attachment) in a family. But more than one is the way of life or the adverse way of life. The peace and privacy in family is possible when the parents have one child, likewise the joy and jovial family life is there. The parents do not get an hour to talk separately. One child leads the parents to live in easy way but more than one makes them difficult to live with all their problems and difficulties. One child is easy for upbringing, educating and feeding. The child grows up in the perfect environment and gets all the facilities or can live by his all child-right. The writer also addresses the child-spacing; at least two children are manageable in the family. But her serious concern is for a single child. The writer faces the serious problems in the family because of the plural children. The family expenditure rises highly if the parents have more than one child and the parents should face the economic crisis.
UNDERSTANDING AND SYNOPSIS OF ESSAY
The essay Speaking of Children is written by Barbara Holland which shows the numerous problems of those parents who have got more than one child. One child is inevitable for all parents but more than one is a headache in various way and the essayist tires to address such kind of problems in this essay. The precious moment, happiness and the family bliss are somewhere lost when the parents have more than one child.
Having plural children are not only problematic to the parents only but for the children themselves because they are deprived from the fundamental and natural right and some are even deprived from the balance diet. For the sole desires, interest and happiness as well as privacy and peacefulness, many parents are facing critical problems. The parents should have to fulfill the each and every demands of the children and these all are almost impossible if thy have the plural children. Apart from that, having more than one child creates social, economic problems. The parents can manage good environment in the house if they have one child. You can brainwash the mind of the children. It may not create problem for you. But plural children nourish a counter-culture trend in the family.
According to the essayist’s opinion, it’s very essential to a healthy marriage that the wife should manage some quiet private time to chat with the husband, preferably when he gets home from work. They need peace and privacy just for half an hour. But in such a private and peaceful moment also your children are disturbing you. Sometimes they quarrel, sometimes they break off something and sometimes they interrupt the peaceful conversation between the couple.
Long- Question
1. Describes the writer's attitude to plural children.
[Or,] What does Barbara Holland
say about having many children?
[Or,] How does Barbara Holland
express her feeling about having many children?
The essay deals with the idea of having more than one child and the consequent expenses of parents. One child is an appendage and more than is a way of life. The essayist is against having many children.
There are so many disadvantages of having many children. Tired parents do not have peace, privacy and rest. House becomes a nursery school. Children play all kinds of games in the rooms. Toys and dirty things are scattered everywhere. Parents can't think of going to some places for own entertainment. They have to follow the children. Children's tastes and entertainments are preferred. Because of the plural children, parents have to introduce with many guardians. A half- an hour work delays for a whole hour. Guardians have hardly any chance to use phone calls. Much expenditure is on food, education and other things. Yet there is no right profit of the expenditure. There can't be good academic environment. Parents have unnecessary burden. They are untimely old and tired.
2. Why is Barbara Holland in favour of a single child?
See summary's first and 2nd paragraph,
Short-Questions
1. What are the disadvantages of having plural children?
There are many disadvantages of having many children. The parents have to look after them. They have to spend a lot of money on their education, food and clothes. They never get leisure time to talk private affairs. The children fight and quarrel which make unnecessary burden for the parents. They make the rooms dirty with play things. The children always disturb the parents. There is no secrecy of the parents' talks. Social gathering, tours and travels etc. are beyond the reach of the parents.
2. Argue why child spacing (gap between the children) may be important
for a happy family life.
Less children more space, more space more facility, more facility more happiness. In the environment of fewer children, there is peace, privacy, and joy in the family. There is no any obstruction. The child can bring up with all kinds of facilities. Preferable environment is always found there. Therefore, child spacing is very important for a happy family life. Eldest child can take care of his/her young brothers and sisters in the house, if they have child space.
3. Does Barbara Holland speak in favour or against having many
children? Give reasons.
Barbara Holland speaks against having many children. She cites a quotation in the essay that ‘one child is an appendage’. And another for many children is that, ‘more than one is a way of life’. A child can be taken everywhere. They can educate and rear the child the way they like. They can spend money for his/her proper education, diet and clothing. On the other hand having many children, the parents have to look after them. They have to spend a lot of money on their education, food and clothes. This can change the course of their life.
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