I’ve thought that perhaps that’s why women are so often…
““I’ve thought that perhaps that’s why women are so often sad, once the child’s born,” she said meditatively, as though thinking aloud. “Ye think of them while ye talk, and you have a knowledge of them as they are inside ye, the way you think they are. And then they’re born, and they’re different—not the way ye thought of them inside, at all. And ye love them, o’ course, and get to know them the way they are … but still, there’s the thought of the child ye once talked to in your heart, and that child is gone. So I think it’s the grievin’ for the child unborn that ye feel, even as ye hold the born one in your arms.” She dipped her head and kissed her daughter’s downy skull. “Yes,” I said. “Before … it’s all possibility. It might be a son, or a daughter. A plain child, a bonny one. And then it’s born, and all the things it might have been are gone, because now it is.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Mothers mourn the imagined child they envisioned, feeling grief for the lost possibilities once the real child arrives.
In simple terms: Mothers grieve the imagined child they never had.
Key Takeaway
Accept the present child while honoring imagined hopes.
Themes
grief
expectation
motherhood
loss
possibility
Mood
empathetic
poignant
reflective
Type
literary
psychological
When to use this quote
- post‑birth adjustment
- parental counseling
- support groups
- creative writing
Key Concepts
identity
attachment
psychological adaptation
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you reconcile imagined futures with reality?
- What rituals honor both loss and present joy?
A Different Perspective
Idealized expectations can cause lingering sorrow; flexibility helps.