Last week we were sitting pretty. We had a flock of chickens who were all contributing to the stash of eggs in my fridge. Every one of them was laying daily, including the two old ladies of the bunch.
I don’t know why, but when the chickens are laying my stress level drops. I am that happy mama; not at all worried about where tomorrow’s breakfast will come from. But when the chickens go sideways, I get that kind of ‘the sky is falling’ kind of stress.
This week our chickens took sideways to a whole new level and decided to eat their eggs. It began with jealous pecking because the old lady chickens just take longer to lay these days. I can identify. Now that I am past the halfway mark, I am slower than those glorious days of chasing toddlers at the park. The issue is that the younger hens in the flock don’t have the patience to wait their turn. So they all literally stand in line waiting for a chance at the laying box. Yes, we have more than one box but everyone wants to use the same one because, well, chickens. . .
By the time the old lady hens are done laying, it is well past noon and the second tier of hens are just plain annoyed. And so they peck the eggs open when they finally get into the box.
Today they took this battle to a whole new level and ran about the pen with broken eggs on their beaks, chasing each other. See what I mean about sideways? They are just plain crazy right now, but nothing that a few days of fresh worms and oatmeal for breakfast won’t fix. I hope.
Of course the stress of all the chicken antics gets to me. When I am stressed, I don’t slow down around my kids to come along side them, at their speed, and spend time listening to them. I just speed past.
The result, if I don’t fix it, is stressed kids because they see me stressed.
And that is how this chicken tale relates to parenting. When you let yourself be distracted from that most important job you have in life your kids will notice. If you are stressed, they will be too, or at least they will be worried. And really there is enough worry out there in the world. I don’t want to add to it.
It all starts with the chickens but where it goes from there is up to you and me.
