I want to have 100 children

One evening I was on the 121 bus from Dublin’s city centre to my provincial house in the North side of the city. I was tired and a bit sleepy when suddenly I heard a child saying to her Mum. “Mum… I want to have 16 children!”
Most of us on the bus began to smile. The chat went on between the children on the bus. Another small girl said: “I want to have 100 children” and another one said: “I want to have a lot of children”.

These chats/talks are simple talks among children. Quite often when we listen to children’s conversation when they are playing with their peers, we may find many interesting conversations which make us (adults) smile. The conversation on the bus that I heard would never come to our thoughts or imaginations as adults. It is purely children’s imagination.

For me the conversation looks and sounds simple but it is not really that simple. On my reflection, I realise that the children’s conversation on the bus can have a beautiful meaning. They might not know what they were talking about. But I find in their conversation there is HOPE. Hope for life. It makes me smile. And I was thinking that the children would be able to talk like that only because of their positive experiences in their relationship with small children. They don’t talk about killing children or having no children but they are talking about having many of them. It brings us hope, not only for us now but also for the future.

(By Nilora)