The baby short story
|
Free Essay Example, 476 words
The “Baby” by Donald Barthelme, is a little uneasy story, about the baby who used to rip off pages from the books. The angry parents punished the baby by leaving her locked in a room for four hours and sometimes even longer depending on how many pages were torn out.
In the beginning, the father seemed to be more strict in punishing the child, whereas the mother could not handle the constant crying. Later on, the dad realized that it is not the right way to get rid of the issue by the absurd “hours behind closed doors” rule, but he also accompanied in the tearing out pages in the books as well as even smashing windshields on cars. It makes the reader wonder that there was something seriously wrong with the parenting skills. If the baby has some type on mental disability and the only way to keep them under control is by tearing out pages in a book, if not that, well then the reader might think it is something else.
At first glance of the title, one thinks it is going to be a loving story of a precious baby, but it’s the opposite of just that. The tone, in the beginning, is somewhat harsh, as spoken from the father’s point of view and when reading that, it makes one almost want to jump in and try and figure out what is wrong with the man, and help the poor baby out. the rule of being behind locked doors didn’t change the baby’s behavior, in fact, she improved this activity obtaining a performance of two pages at a time. The parents wanted to teach her how it is to live in a world of rules but they were not aware of the fact that their child was only fourteen months old. They treated the baby like it was an adult when the dad says “we gave the baby some of our wine. . . and spoke seriously to her. ” She is too young to understand it. Anyway, this behavior of the parents is absolutely strange and when the baby’s father saw his method was not working, he began to feel sorry for what he did to his child, but he didn’t want to admit that it was wrong for him to do that.
So, he began to give his child more attention by sitting with her and tearing pages together out of books and sometimes smashing a windshield. And by doing that, he breaks his own rules and he still wouldn’t admit that punishment was not the best way to bring up his child, he even suggests that no matter what method he chooses to experiment on his child are good. He says “that is one of the satisfying things about being a parent-you’ve got a lot of moves, each one good as gold”.
29 April 2020
⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an average student. It does not reflect the quality of papers completed by our expert essay writers. To get a custom and plagiarism-free essay click here.
Composition My child (for kindergarten or school, about a girl and a boy)
- Compositions /
- Family
About a girl
For every mother, her child is always the best, and sometimes it is difficult to objectively evaluate his actions. My daughter Lisa is only 2 years old. Someone will say that this is already a lot and that she is an adult, but for every mother her child at any age remains a child.
At the age of one and a half, my daughter started attending a kindergarten, a nursery group. On the first day in the garden, she fell in love with him very much, of course, thanks to the wonderful teachers and nannies who were able to properly organize leisure and games with the children.
At two years old, Lisa speaks very clearly, so we have no problems communicating with adults and peers.
My daughter is a very mobile child, sitting quietly and calmly for a long time is problematic for her. As soon as she hears the music, she immediately starts dancing. And maybe when she grows up a little, I will enroll her in a dance studio.
But my daughter's main hobby is drawing. For the first time she took a pencil in her hands at 11 months, then she drew her first drawings. At first it was just, as the saying goes, "kalyaka-malyaka", but now she already draws quite beautiful drawings. She loves to draw in any way, be it pencils, paints or crayons. Well, I very carefully store all my daughter's drawings in a separate folder. And I will definitely continue to develop her drawing skills.
Somehow it happened that Lisa did not like cartoons, but from the very birth she was interested in books. Interest in books grew into true love. There are a lot of different books on the shelf in her room. In the breaks of the games, she takes out one and asks me to read to her. My daughter especially loves it when I read fairy tales to her before bed.
Lisa is a very beautiful girl, with blue eyes from her father, and blond hair from her mother, which is always braided or ponytailed. Like all girls, she loves to dress beautifully, loves to wear dresses, and always wears them with special care. Her accuracy is shown not only to clothes, but also to her toys. She rarely scatters them, but then she always collects them herself, and she never broke a single toy. In general, my child is very obedient, if she doesn’t like something or is not happy with something, she expresses it quite calmly. She loves her parents very much, and, of course, her grandparents.
My daughter is also growing up to be a great helper. She is always interested in the process of cooking or cleaning, and she herself shows a desire to help me. She also likes to help dad when he fixes or makes something.
Every day my daughter is getting older, smarter and smarter. And every day I love her more and more, and I really hope that I can bring her up well.
Composition about a boy
Children are the most important and valuable thing in our life. They change the life of adults, making it more active, interesting, vibrant and rich. And 5 years ago, it was he who appeared in my life with my husband, a little man who changed us once and for all. Our son Vyacheslav was born on a wonderful May holiday, May 1st. He quickly gained weight and height, and, as it should be for a baby, he ate and slept a lot. And now he has grown up to be a smart, athletic and very kind boy.
From a very young age, Slava fell in love with books. At first he simply examined them, and then asked him to read them. At the age of 5, he can already read a word of two or three syllables. And dad taught him to count up to 30. But, probably, most of all, our child loves to collect puzzles and a designer. I am sure that this love comes from his father, who works as a chief engineer. Fascinated by puzzles, Slava can sit for half a day, while he is always patiently and diligently looking for a suitable puzzle. After diligently collecting puzzles, Slava loves to spend the energy that he has accumulated so much. He loves to climb the sports complex, jump on the trampoline, and recently he really enjoyed climbing the climbers wall. He has many types of constructor, there are also very difficult ones for him, then dad comes to the rescue. Dad plays an important role in the upbringing of his son, Slava always speaks about dad with pride and love, and in the future, she wants to be like him.
Nowadays, there is a lack of kind and sympathetic people who are always ready to help. It is these feelings that we try to instill in our son. When we go for a walk with our son, we feed homeless dogs and cats. He enjoys doing a good deed so much that now he prepares bones for them himself. And just recently, Slava collected a package of toys that he no longer plays with, and together we took them to very needy children in an orphanage. He never gets greedy with toys or anything. When we had a godmother of Glory with his daughter, who is two years younger than him, he showed his hospitality, treated the girl with cakes, showed his toys and even gave her one. And he has no problems in communicating with adults. He perfectly understands what can and cannot be done, to be rude to elders, and in general it is absolutely impossible to be rude, and he never did this.
Putting a lot of work, effort and patience into my son's upbringing, I can see from my son's behavior that all of this gives results. I can say with confidence that my son Vyacheslav will grow up as a serious and responsible guy.
Other topics:← Description of the mother's appearance↑ FamilyMy family →
My child (for kindergarten or school)
Popular compositions
- Compositions based on Feldman's paintings
Description of paintings by Feldman
- Honesty is closest to greatness - essay-reasoning
In fact, honesty is a luxury that few people can afford.
As it is not difficult to understand, greatness is also the prerogative of quite a few, it is available only to the elite and, as a rule,
- Lyrical digressions in "Dead Souls" (Grade 9)
N.V. Gogol's unusual decision to attribute his work to the genre of "poem" is not accidental. In "Dead Souls" there is a unique fusion of lyrical and epic principles.
Competition "Me and my child"
In the kindergarten, an essay contest was held among the parents of pupils "Me and my child". The first place was taken by the story of Eskina Alexandra Vitalievna (group "Watercolors"), congratulations to the winner!!! Second place - Shekhanina Ekaterina Viktorovna (group "Droplets"), third - Popova Violetta Mikhailovna (group "Bells")
Composition of the winner.
Me and my baby
I was 26 at the time. On that beautiful spring morning, I found out that I would become a mother, and immediately shared this news with my husband. I still remember the feeling of amazement and delight on his face! From that day on, we began to make plans every day, dream, imagine: what this baby will be like, our baby, what kind of parents we will be ...
Winter. This is the time of our meeting with my daughter. This meeting is so long-awaited, exciting. I hold her and I can't believe she's mine. Here we are, nose to nose, on the bed in the hospital, and I listen to her sniffle in her sleep. Her name is Ksyusha. Here she is eating and smacking her lips importantly. The nurse takes blood from her heel, and she doesn't even wake up. Here dad meets us at the discharge. He clutched the envelope so tightly and with great tenderness tries in this multi-layered device of diapers and blankets to make out the tiny face of the most dear and beloved person.
Now my daughter is at home. She sleeps in her new crib, and we listen to her breathe. Suddenly she sobbed. I jump up and run to her. Everything is fine, just a dream. Here Ksyusha is standing and holding on to the chest of drawers. She smiles with all her toothless mouth, and I stand half a step away from her (just in case).
She is a little over a year old. We love to assemble a pyramid, build turrets from multi-colored cubes. But the most favorite thing is to paint with finger paints everything that is within foreseeable availability. And when she laughs at the same time, it is impossible not to laugh!
I read a fairy tale before going to bed, and my daughter sniffles on my shoulder and listens attentively. She loves to listen to stories about animals, and I love to read to her. We fall asleep together too.
Ksyusha goes for a walk. She looks around curiously. Notice the swing. My daughter loves to ride very high, "up to the very sky." My arms are tired, but the swing keeps going up until Ksyusha stops me. Then we count how many floors there are in our house, and on which one we live. We walk along the road, cars rush past us. Here is a zebra, and the red eye of the traffic light looks menacingly at us. “Don’t go,” she said, and firmly took my hand. Green, Ksyusha takes me across the road.
In the store, Ksyusha sits in a cart and loudly comments on everything that is on the counters and windows. I buy her a milkshake, she loves milkshakes very much.
"Little Mommy" pushes a stroller in front of her with a baby doll slightly larger than herself. When the baby doll "cries", Ksyusha takes him in her arms, and asks me to roll the stroller. In this case, I always have a bottle with a mixture of semolina and water with me. I offer my daughter to feed her baby. But he still doesn't want to go to bed. I obediently carry the stroller behind them.
My daughter and I attend a children's studio, getting ready for kindergarten. Most of all she likes music lessons. The daughter listens attentively to all commands and tries very hard to do everything correctly. She makes remarks to children who do not obey. Together with her, we repeat all the movements after the teacher, we learn the words of new songs. After these classes, my girl is always in a good mood. The phone will ring. We were told that it was time to go to kindergarten. Rainy morning. We are going. I carry my daughter in my arms. Tears roll down my throat, but I hold on. In the garden, she does not let go of my hand and piteously looks into my eyes. She knows that I'm leaving now. And I'm leaving. I walk around the garden for about two hours. Time to go back for my girl. She didn't eat anything. She is very sad. She was offended... I don't know how to make amends for this guilt, because tomorrow I will leave her here again. Then she'll get used to it. Or maybe just reconcile ...
Ksyusha is 4 years old. At the celebration in honor of her birthday, we dance and sing a song about a loaf. The daughter chooses her mother. In the evening we unpack gifts and play. Ksyusha loves to play with dolls. She always gives me the role of a daughter, she herself plays for her mother. She shows her care in this role, always hugging, kissing, cooking in her toy kitchen. Psychologists and scientists write in their writings that children copy our behavior. In these games, I see a gentle and careful attitude towards us, which means that in real life she receives the same from us. This makes me happy.
I love watching her. How quickly she grew up! Childhood is the best time! Childhood is carelessness, friendship, new discoveries, sincerity.
Now our Ksyusha is 5 years old. She, like a sponge, absorbs all the information from the world around her. She is becoming more and more independent. She tries to do everything herself, but at the same time she is waiting for help. She is so big and so small!
Recently, Ksyushenka has become interested in questions of life and death, her birth, the origin of people. At first, these questions baffled me. I searched the Internet for answers, read scientific literature in order to correctly explain this information to a five-year-old child. My daughter always listens attentively to everything I say, and then she tries to explain the same thing to me. It's very interesting, because that way I can understand what she learned from what was said.
In our family, I say without too much modesty, the relationship is very warm and trusting. In the evenings, freed from work and kindergarten, we all have dinner together, and then we play various games: twist, dominoes, rpg, crossword puzzles. Ksyusha loves to play active games with her dad. They jump rope, try to do acrobatics, play football. Recently, Ksyusha has become interested in checkers. She likes to win (which happens often), and gets very upset if her mother wins the next game. I teach her to take a lesson from this game, sorting out with her what mistakes were made.
While reading the book, she asks a lot of questions, and after reading, she herself tells me why it happened that way, who is right and who is wrong. It is always interesting for me to ask Ksyusha her point of view. How interesting and meaningful her position can be!
Recently I read to my daughter a fairy tale from a children's book about the relationship of three generations: a grandson, his parents and grandfather. In this story, the parents offended the elderly father, and the little grandson saw this and decided to teach his parents a lesson, letting them know that when he grows up, he will also treat them. Parents learned this lesson, and since then the family began to live together. As usual, I expected a million questions from Ksyushenka, but, to my surprise, she was silent. After a few minutes of reflection, the daughter said that she would love us forever and would never act like the boy's parents did. Our daughter has been attending rhythmic gymnastics classes for a year now. She says she likes it very much. At home, Ksyusha teaches me to stretch, stand on a bridge and perform other exercises that are difficult for me. Of course, I try to justify her "coaching" hopes and, puffing, I try to repeat after her.
All five years that my daughter has been living with us, we have been developing together with her. Family is the most important thing a person has. I am grateful to fate for the happiness of raising such a girl and I am very proud of her. Now my daughter and I are friends. I hope we will be lifelong friends.
Second place.
"Me and my child"
Family - based on marriage or
consanguinity group, whose members,
are connected by common life, mutual
moral responsibility and mutual assistance.
Our family consists of three people: father Andrey, mother Katya and daughter Zlatochka. The history of the family began ten years ago. My future husband and I went to high school together. After the graduation party, our paths diverged, and only 4 years after the meeting of graduates, we no longer parted. In 2009 we got married, and nine months later our girl was born.
Zlata showed her character from the very first minute, she is very self-possessed and assiduous. She was still in the hospital, patiently waiting to be fed and changed, when the crying of other babies was often heard nearby. And also Zlatochka is a very affectionate girl, she can hug and kiss, but to hug and kiss her, never and never. We have many relatives and friends, and we have one Zlata for all. And, of course, everyone wants to kiss and cuddle her, and numerous relatives don’t manage to do anything, “kiss ladies candy” or “buy a doll”, but she steadfastly holds the defense, but if she gives up, she always turns her cheek.
The first thing Zlata met after being discharged from the maternity hospital was bathing. It passed with tears and the next ones too, we always tried to complete this procedure faster. But now, as soon as Zlata hears the sound of a bath being filled, she starts to jump up and down and sing loudly, "Hurrah, hurrah, today I'll swim." You can sit in the bathroom for hours. She used to love to sit in the bath and draw on the wall with finger paints, but now she takes all her dolls with her and washes them very carefully (the head, then the whole body with a washcloth) and scolds the dolls who do not want to go to wash. Because of our great love for the water, we signed up for swimming. My daughter went to individual lessons with a personal trainer, she trained hard for the first months with pleasure, then she realized that she needed to go there not for games, but to work and began to cool off for classes, constantly coming up with something, just not to go to them. Bottom line: we no longer attend training. But, the love of swimming has not gone away and we go to the pool almost every weekend, and she swims there. Lessons with a coach were not in vain, and today we already swim without mittens and a circle. She loves to go to the sea and bathes there without interruption, even already shaking from the cold, she comes out of the water with wild protest. And after three minutes he looks at us with hope, when will we let her go swimming again.
I can see that Zlata is easy to train, she really likes to learn everything new and interesting. Since childhood, she also loved to listen to fairy tales, as if enchanted, she sat and did not move until the reading was over. Already at the age of three months we bought her the first book by Agniya Barto “A bull is walking, swinging”. After all, she knew all the verses from this book by heart.
Zlata is a very obedient girl, in childhood we never had problems with dangerous things left in the family, a knife on the table or a hot pot, frying pan. From the first time, as soon as it was said, this is dangerous, Zlata immediately lost interest in this. Also, she did not have a craving for opening cabinets and drawers and putting “orders” in them. Even being a 5-year-old child, Zlata probably does not know what is in some of our boxes.
By the age of three, she did not make contact with children at all, walked alone, played alone in the sandbox, and it seemed to me that she would become an outcast in society. And then we decided to send her to an early development school, we thought that there she would learn how to communicate with other children, find friends for herself. Nothing has changed there, Zlata regularly performed the tasks of the teacher, but when it came time to do joint work with other children, she always left everyone or called for help from me. And so it was everywhere. It is only now that I already understand that she is very attentive to the choice of her friends and it was not worth putting pressure on her then. That time will put everything in its place and she will have friends and girlfriends with whom she will enjoy spending time.
When she went to kindergarten, she could not get used to the group for a long time, did not play with the children and always sat alone in the corner, but then after a short time, she came home and was all beaming. We asked her what was special today, she replied that she had a girlfriend. Zlata said that she had been looking at the girls for a long time and chose Varya. I approached her and asked:
- Will you be my friend?
- Yes.
- Will you be a good friend?
- I will be the best.
And they embraced. This friendship is very strong and true. Zlata cherishes her friend, and we all support her in this. For all the holidays, the whole family comes up with pleasant surprises for her and make gifts. Zlata used to always ask us to buy something for Varya, but over time we convinced her that the best gift she would make with her own hands. And this example is contagious, Varvara now also indulges Zlata with her gifts. She comes to the kindergarten before us, and when Zlata appears on the threshold, Varya runs to her as fast as she can and gives her drawings, beautiful and always signed (to Zlata). They are even called nesting dolls, their relationship is so close.
on the street, her daughter is ongoing isolated, but she really likes the kids and she always watches with interest. And if he sees that they need help, he is always the first to help. It is easy to share your toys, you can always agree with her, exchange them for a while. Even when she was very young, she always let other guys see her things.
Zlata is a very musical girl. When she was a baby, when she started crying, we always turned on music for her, and she immediately calmed down. Having become older, she asked for a music column, and when she got it, the house was immediately filled with children's songs. My daughter sang songs and brought her column even to the dinner table, announcing to everyone that we were having lunch in a cafe.
She also likes to show us theater performances. We read a fairy tale, and if she really likes it, we will definitely show it on our home mini-stage. We have many different figurines of animals, birds, people, and what we lack, we sew or sculpt from plasticine. To support her hobbies, we went to the Chopin school. In order to enter the theater studio, she must be eight years old, so we sent her to the Schoolchildren group, there are five subjects: fine arts, choreography, music, singing and the alphabet of the theater. Zlata easily learns poetry and songs, and therefore she is given the main roles in small productions at matinees. Our whole family comes to her concerts and always gives her flowers, so that she understands, we are proud of her, and that she succeeds.
But in fact, everything succeeds! And of course we are proud of her. She is the most, the most…
- Yes, you say, for every mother her child is the most beautiful, but here I do not argue with you.
I can only say that we love our daughter, and she loves us! We support all her undertakings, and all decisions in our family are made with her participation. We always let her have her say. We accept it as it is, we don’t try to put all our unfulfilled dreams into it, we don’t put pressure on it and we don’t insist if something doesn’t work out, we just postpone it for another time, when it becomes a little more mature to achieve this task. And we will always be by her side, no matter what happens! Because we are family. Because she is our child!
Third place.
"Me and my child"
Did we ever think in childhood that we would become parents someday? We played with dolls, fed porridge to rosy-cheeked baby dolls, and rolled them around in little strollers, imagining that this is what real mothers do. Even after graduating from school and university, becoming adults, it still seemed to us that a child is a beautiful doll from an advertisement for baby food. And that having a child is endless joy, happiness and fun.
And then everything changes overnight. You feel that something is happening to you - and now the doctor informs you with a smile that you are pregnant. You look at him with surprise and suddenly realize that life is now divided into before and after. Forever. That there are already two of you. What is new and life under your heart. And now, at this very moment, you realize with piercing clarity what LIFE is. And what exactly are you giving it to a new creature, as your mother once gave it to you.
What happens when you first see your newborn baby's face? What invisible threads connect at this moment your heart and the heart of a little man who has just taken his first breath in his life? What happens to you when the almost weightless body of your most precious being from now on is placed in your arms and you apply it to your chest? HAPPINESS... Incredible happiness, the likes of which you have never experienced. First love, first kiss - all these were just steps on the way to this day. The day your child was born.
And only after a while you realize what responsibility you received along with this priceless gift. You start to be afraid of everything - drafts, colds, infections. You cry with your child when he is given a shot or an injection, because it hurts you just as much as it hurts, because his tears are unbearable for you. You want to hold him in your arms and protect him from everything, protect him, you want him to always smile and never get sick. You wake up a hundred times a night and listen to his quiet sniffling, gently stroke the swirling top of your head and think that here it is, happiness, sleeping nearby . ..
When a child grows up, the excitement only increases. Broken noses, skinned knees, painted wallpaper, a cat covered in greenery that frightenedly hides under the sofa, barely seeing his "best friend" who certainly wants to play with her - to drag her by the tail or tear off her ear. All day long everything around you rumbles, breaks, explodes and is tried on the tooth. Your child is beginning to explore the world, and woe to this world that gets in his way! And again you stroke the swirling crown of your treasure, which finally falls asleep with a sense of accomplishment after a day's work, and wonder if you will have time to drink tea or chat on the phone with a friend while the king sleeps. And then, with a sigh, you go to collect the toys scattered around the house, wipe lipstick from the mirror in the bathroom and sew up pants torn on the playground. And you understand that these few minutes of silence are HAPPINESS.
With what joy and excitement you lead your child to kindergarten for the first time! This is a new stage, new friends, new emotions, the first step on the path of growing up. For the first time, you let your baby go away from you for so long, for the whole day. You walk around an empty apartment and sometimes startle, because it seems to you that a vase has crashed from the windowsill in the next room, or you remember that it’s already two o’clock, and you haven’t fed your child dinner yet. And then you realize that today you are completely free and free from worries, but then why are you looking at your watch so excitedly and wondering whether to pick up your treasure from the kindergarten right now or after dinner? After all, without him, the house is so quiet and lonely!
Gradually everything goes back to normal, you go to work, get used to a new life filled not only with caring for the child, but also with new impressions, acquaintances, other worries and experiences. You become yourself again, begin to separate your life and the life of a child, and suddenly you realize that he is no longer as helpless and small as he was at birth. That he has his own opinion, his circle of friends, his own personal, albeit childish, but thoughts, desires and dreams. You begin to build a new relationship with him, to which are added respect for the small emerging personality and surprise that the one who until recently was an integral part of you now angrily stamps his foot and, with the stubbornness of a donkey, insists that he is already big. And you still want to pick him up in your arms and circle the room with laughter, experiencing indescribable joy from his cheerful laughter and shining eyes. But now it's not so easy. Now your child is already different, and you need to re-learn how to look for an approach to him, so that he sees in you not only a mother, but also a friend, and an interlocutor, and an example to follow.
And now your child is a schoolboy. The first of September, a smart uniform, flowers, joyful excitement because a new life is coming. Lessons begin, circles, homework, correspondence with new friends on the Internet, dissatisfied: "Mom, that's it, you're bothering me!". You have more and more free time, and you remember with sadness and nostalgia the sleepless nights and days filled with excitement, when your baby belonged only to you, and you - to him. And now he can cook his own breakfast, read a book, go to the store and all that remains for you is just: "Did you do the lessons? Now where? Put on a scarf!" And you desperately want to show your care, show love, but alas, your child needs this much less often than in childhood, when every scratch became a universal tragedy. And only sometimes he, as before, cuddles up to you, and you see in his eyes that baby who once upon a time was rocked in his arms and kissed on chubby cheeks ...
Sometimes I ask myself the question - what does it mean to be a mother? And am I a good mom? Is my child happy, is he happy? Am I giving him my best? Do I often kiss and hug, play, help? Do I cook delicious porridge for breakfast or is it tastier at my grandmother's? Does he like that sweater or backpack that I gave him, or does he already have his own taste, and mine is hopelessly outdated? And I, like many years ago, go up to his bed, straighten the blanket that has fallen to the floor, remove the unfinished book from under my cheek and stroke the swirling top of his head.