Duck, duck…
Parenting inspiration often comes from the unlikeliest of places
By Brenda Wade Schmidt
There’s another mother at my house these days.
She sleeps next to a hosta plant under a gigantic pine and never leaves her nest. That is, she never left for weeks until this week when one of our family’s ducks hatch seven (so far) ducklings, a task that shows just how tenacious a female can be.
It’s hard not to feel some sort of motherly bond with this duck, who doesn’t even have a name. She started laying an egg a day, at first in the middle of the yard with random abandonment.
After my husband tossed about five of those eggs into the grove, this bird wised up, dug a shallow bowl near the hosta, lined it with feathers and other soft stuff and laid her daily egg there. The whole time, she kept her normal routine of roaming the yard, nibbling on weeds and snarfing down bugs.
But one day the mother duck planted herself on her pile of eggs, about 15 by that point, and never left but for an occasional stretch nearby.
At night, I could look out the window and see her white body nestled in the dark landscape. In the day, if my kids or I got too close, she hissed her warning to stay away.
My motherly instincts knew she must be hungry and thirsty so we put a bucket of water nearby and tossed down an a scoop of cracked corn now and then, cooing that she was doing a great job.
This week, mommy duck stopped hissing when we came near. Instead, she proudly stood up, revealing the tiny yellow ducklings she was protecting under her wings, as if to say, “See, it was worth the wait.”
Some of the eggs were obviously not fertilized so we threw those away. She still has a couple left to hatch and sits on those while keeping her new family warm.
Today, she took her babies for a walk, quacking to encourage them to come along, stay in line. There is nothing cuter!
While people pregnancies certainly go on longer than it took to hatch these ducklings, the patience required to bring offspring into the world is pretty universal, I think. Both humans and mother ducks share the instinct to protect their babies with all their might.
I’m going to miss looking out at that other mother in my life, calmly waiting under the tree. I¹m sure she’ll go back to her grazing routine as soon as her ducklings are able to stick near her and as soon as those last
eggs hatch.
She’s a great example of a mother, and I’ve told her how proud I am of her. I’m always looking for inspiration when it comes to raising a family. I wonder if she knows anything about the teen years?
Duck, duck…
Parenting inspiration often comes from the unlikeliest of places
By Brenda Wade Schmidt
There’s another mother at my house these days.
She sleeps next to a hosta plant under a gigantic pine and never leaves her nest. That is, she never left for weeks until this week when one of our family’s ducks hatch seven (so far) ducklings, a task that shows just how tenacious a female can be.
It’s hard not to feel some sort of motherly bond with this duck, who doesn’t even have a name. She started laying an egg a day, at first in the middle of the yard with random abandonment.
After my husband tossed about five of those eggs into the grove, this bird wised up, dug a shallow bowl near the hosta, lined it with feathers and other soft stuff and laid her daily egg there. The whole time, she kept her normal routine of roaming the yard, nibbling on weeds and snarfing down bugs.
But one day the mother duck planted herself on her pile of eggs, about 15 by that point, and never left but for an occasional stretch nearby.
At night, I could look out the window and see her white body nestled in the dark landscape. In the day, if my kids or I got too close, she hissed her warning to stay away.
My motherly instincts knew she must be hungry and thirsty so we put a bucket of water nearby and tossed down an a scoop of cracked corn now and then, cooing that she was doing a great job.
This week, mommy duck stopped hissing when we came near. Instead, she proudly stood up, revealing the tiny yellow ducklings she was protecting under her wings, as if to say, “See, it was worth the wait.”
Some of the eggs were obviously not fertilized so we threw those away. She still has a couple left to hatch and sits on those while keeping her new family warm.
Today, she took her babies for a walk, quacking to encourage them to come along, stay in line. There is nothing cuter!
While people pregnancies certainly go on longer than it took to hatch these ducklings, the patience required to bring offspring into the world is pretty universal, I think. Both humans and mother ducks share the instinct to protect their babies with all their might.
I’m going to miss looking out at that other mother in my life, calmly waiting under the tree. I¹m sure she’ll go back to her grazing routine as soon as her ducklings are able to stick near her and as soon as those last
eggs hatch.
She’s a great example of a mother, and I’ve told her how proud I am of her. I’m always looking for inspiration when it comes to raising a family. I wonder if she knows anything about the teen years?