Wednesday, March 24, 2004
a child's version of birth
another fabulous email:
THE MIDDLE WIFE
(by an Anonymous Second-Grade Teacher)
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself,
but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade
classroom a few years back. When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So
I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over
shyness. Usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet
turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that.
And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they
want to lug it to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid,
takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow
stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant.
"Hi everyone. This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you
about his birthday... First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their
love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in
there.
He ate for nine months through an Umbrella-Cord."
She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to
laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her
in amazement.
"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh,
oh!'"
Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans.
"She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'"
Now the kid's doing this hysterical duck walk, holding her back and
groaning.
"So my Dad called the Middle Wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't
have a sign on her car like the Domino's man....They got my Mom to lie
down in bed like this."
Erica lies down with her back against the wall.
"And then, POP! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case
he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like
psshhheew!"
This kid has her legs spread wide and with her little hands she's miming
water flowing away. It was too much!
"Then the Middle Wife starts saying 'Push, push, and breathe, breathe.'
They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a
sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff, and they
said it was from Mom's Play-Center, so there must be
a lot of stuff inside there."
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.
I'm sure I applauded the loudest!
Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder,
just in case another Erica comes along.
life is meant to be lived . . . enjoy & laugh, and see things as children do. they have the most wonderful perspective!
THE MIDDLE WIFE
(by an Anonymous Second-Grade Teacher)
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself,
but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade
classroom a few years back. When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So
I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over
shyness. Usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet
turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that.
And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they
want to lug it to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid,
takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow
stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant.
"Hi everyone. This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you
about his birthday... First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their
love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in
there.
He ate for nine months through an Umbrella-Cord."
She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to
laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her
in amazement.
"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh,
oh!'"
Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans.
"She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'"
Now the kid's doing this hysterical duck walk, holding her back and
groaning.
"So my Dad called the Middle Wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't
have a sign on her car like the Domino's man....They got my Mom to lie
down in bed like this."
Erica lies down with her back against the wall.
"And then, POP! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case
he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like
psshhheew!"
This kid has her legs spread wide and with her little hands she's miming
water flowing away. It was too much!
"Then the Middle Wife starts saying 'Push, push, and breathe, breathe.'
They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a
sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff, and they
said it was from Mom's Play-Center, so there must be
a lot of stuff inside there."
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.
I'm sure I applauded the loudest!
Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder,
just in case another Erica comes along.
life is meant to be lived . . . enjoy & laugh, and see things as children do. they have the most wonderful perspective!
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
