Next week I will be going to Washington D.C. as a faculty chaperone for a student service club at the college where I teach. We will be flying down on Thursday and then back on Sunday. It’s a terrific group of kids and I’m so looking forward to this trip.
When I told my kids about the trip, *all* of them loudly groaned. “You’re going to be in mama hen mode the whole time, aren’t you?”
Of course, I’ll be in mama hen mode, why on earth wouldn’t I be? But I’m starting to think that being a mama hen might have gotten a bad rap in our house. My kids think that being a mama hen means smothering your chicks with attention. Au contraire, my little ones…
- Mama hens *hover* near their chicks to keep an eye on them, but they allow their chicks to independently explore.
- Mama hens point out where the good food is – chicks typically get to eat before they do.
- Mama hens show chicks the interesting things in the yard, where the kitchen scraps are tossed, where the water buckets are located, where to find the juiciest worms. Mama hens know the lay of the land.
- Mama hens make sure their chicks at safe at night – those little ones come home in the evening to get counted and tucked-in under the mama’s protective feathers. All is well.
- And Mama hens will *always* put themselves between their chicks and a hawk. Always.
I ask you, who wouldn’t want a mama hen traveling with their kids?
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com
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