Quality of Life and the Evaluation of Quality of Care

God bless Mummy. I know that’s right.

Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?

The cold’s so cold, and the hot’s so hot.

Oh! God bless Daddy – I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more

I can see Nanny’s dressing gown on the door.

It’s a beautiful blue, but it hasn’t a hood.

Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,

And pull the hood tight over my head,

And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,

And nobody knows that I’m there at all.

Oh! Thank you God for a lovely day.

And what was the other I had to say?

I said “Bless Daddy”, so what can it be?

Oh! Now I remember it. God bless me.

Whether or not A.A. Milne accurately reflected childhood experiences in 1924, this is certainly the picture of childhood experience and expectation with which many of us grew up. As an aside, I would note that another English poet, Kit Wright, writing in 1978, comes up with a vastly different picture of life through a child’s eyes:

My Mum is on a diet,

My dad is on the booze,

My Gran’s out playing Bingo

And she was born to lose.

My brother’s stripped his motorbike

Although it’s bound to rain.

My sister’s playing Elton John

Over and over again.

What a dim old family!

What a dreary lot!

Sometimes I think that I'm the only

Superstar they’ve got.