There’s Going to Be a Baby

A little boy is told that there is going to be a baby and so begins a series of questions about the baby… ‘When is the baby going to come?’, ‘What will we call the baby?’. The little boy’s mum answers the questions and he generates more and more questions about what the baby will do. For example the little boy wonders ‘Maybe the baby will work in the kitchen and perhaps be a chief’ and then considers this and the mess that would follow when the baby tries to cook. The boy, on seeing a painting in a gallery wonders on the baby becoming an artist and again thinks it is not such a good idea as, in this case, ‘it will make a terrible mess’. Mum and the little boy walk through the park and he wonders on the baby being a gardener and is clearly concerned about how much mess and chaos a new baby may cause. The little boy asks Mummy if she can tell the baby to go away. As Mum’s bump grows, so does the boy’s imagination in considering what the baby will become: a zoo keeper (may get eaten by a lion), a sailor, the baby could work in the bank and give him lots of money (not a bad idea). Then the boy tells his Mum that ‘Mrs Anderson’s baby was sick all over the carpet.’ Clearly a disturbing thought for the little boy, but he carries on with his wonderings on what the baby will become; a park keeper, a doctor or nurse …When the baby is nearly ready to come out, the boy goes to the hospital with his granddad and tells him excitedly about all the things he thinks the baby may do, and lastly and most importantly as they walk into the hospital, the little boys asks ‘we are going to love the baby aren’t we?’