1. DLA: Short Answer Response
Common Errors
“All My Babies are Gone Now”

2. SAR Question:
Do you think the author of “All My Babies are Gone” considers herself a good mother?

3. What makes this a GREAT response?
I think the author considers herself a good mother because she has a positive relationship with her children and learned just as much from them as they did from her. The author reflects that her children are “the three people [she] [likes] best” and laments that she didn’t “live in the moment enough” while her children were growing up. This displays how the author is satisfied with what her children grew up to be and regrets not enjoying her precious time with them enough. In addition, the author conveys that her children were “the experts” in teaching her how to raise children, emphasizing how the author has learned and grown from her experiences like she believes a good mother should. The author is a good mother because she loves and learns from her children. -CV

4. What would improve this response?
In the excerpt All My Babies Are Gone Now a mother talks about her experience raising children. I believe that she is a good mother even though she might have made some mistakes. “Believe me, mistakes were made.” Even though the mother may have made some mistakes, she tried to be a good mother and she tried to understand how to be a good mother. “Raising children is presented first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay.”

5. What would improve this response?
The author implies through her reflective diction that she was a pretty good mother. She has “great satisfaction in” her kids how they have “become who” they wanted to be. Her “biggest mistake” she thought was “not living in the moment.” Her feelings and her descriptiveness shows that she felt she was a good mom and that her kids taught her valuable lessons because there (AAAAH!!!) the real “experts.”

6. What would improve this response?
In “All My Babies are Gone Now,” the author doesn’t consider herself as a good mother. The author reveals her thought of her life of learning from the “experts” with a nostalgic tone. (?) The author have (?) made “the biggest mistake” by not “[living] in the moment enough.” She didn’t “treasure the doing[s]” in her life as a mother of 3 children. The author keeps wishing for her past and isn’t “sure what was [her] and what was life.” It took the author a “while to figure out who the experts were.” The author wasn’t considering herself as a loving, caring mother, and kept on longing for the days gone by with her children.

7. What would improve this response?
I think the author considers herself a good mother; even though she has made some mistakes. “As a new parent” it was “terrifying” at first for her, but then “soothing.” The author knows “mistakes were made,” but is still proud of the moments she shared with her children. The author knows she tried her hardest and has the best children in the world.

8. What would improve this response?
The author considers herself to be a good mother because of the way she refers to her children. For example, while telling the audience that her children are gone she says she feels “not sorrow…disbelief,” which shows she misses the time she had with them. Also she says she wishes she had “treasured the doing a little more,” which implies that she feels good about her parenting, but wishes to have done more. Finally, she says that she ended up with “the three people I like best in the world.” This shows her deep love for her children and how she feels about how she did as a mother. By referencing the way she speaks of her children, the author feels as though she was a good mother.

9. What would improve this response?
From the excerpt, “All My Babies are Gone Now,” I believe that the author does consider herself a good mother. The author states that she “take[s] great satisfaction in what I [she] have [has] today” and she ended up with the “three people I [she] like[s] best in the world.”

10. What makes this a great response?
In the reflective passage “All my Babies are Gone Now” by Anna Quindlin, the author looks back on her parental choices toward her beloved children. Although upset she did not “live in the moment” enough, it is clear the author takes “great satisfaction” in what her children have become today. Even though Quindlin expresses the fiery desire to have “treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less,” the author is a good parent because her children grew to be themselves.”