May 25, 2017
The Chicken Castle
It was one of those days when I felt productive. I’d managed to get the house cleaned, was hanging my third load of laundry, had finished catching up financial reports after our move, and everyone was still breathing.
Then there was a squeal that makes any mother immediately drop anything. It was followed by “stay in that castle!” (Okay, no one is hurt, probably.) With my adrenaline pumping like a bass drum in my ears, I try to breathe and respond without screaming “WHAT HAPPENED?”
Jaquline and Jillian had built a castle with the outside blocks and had corralled the 23 one-week-old chicks into it. Platinum, Chicka, and Sherlock (yes, they named the chicks!) decided the grass outside of the castle was better than the feed inside. While the girls squealed and attempted to catch the chicks (Mix prong-horn antelope speed with mongoose evasion & you have a young chicken) 19 of the remaining biddie flock fled the castle.
“Mom!” Jillian wailed, (I was back hanging clothes) “Only Kerjack obeyed.”
“How can we keep hawks away from you if you don’t listen?” Jaquline said to the chicks as they gathered in one spot under a billowing sheet. (Hawks only have a chance because they have super stealth.)
I spied a teaching moment! Perfect! So I left the clothes and helped them gather the chicks to the safe spot where hawks usually don’t spot them and the girls could attempt to watch them again. I told the girls: that is what we (parents) feel like when we give warnings (like the latest for Lucas, “don’t try to grab the goose at the park!”) but children choose not to listen. We know what the danger is; like they know the danger for the chicks.
Jillian looked at her shorts. “Like when you say wear pants but I have shorts and mosquitoes can bite me easier.” Jaquline pulled up her pants and checked her legs for bites, then announced, “but I have long pants so I listened and I have no mosquito bites!”
Bingo! This day now feels super productive!
Thanks for reading!
Type at you later,
~Nancy Tart
