This is the day that all recognize their mothers. For the warmth their arms give when they’re held close, for the peace of mind, for the safe feeling they get around them, for the sweet words, and the loving smile, even for the occasional scolding, as it all comes from a loving heart.
It is the day that most think about the duty of the mother, so elegantly performed. The gratitude goes to being fed, clothed, kept in a clean home, needs tended to, with no other responsibility but to be there…well, maybe even that is overlooked at times…
One often thinks of motherhood as the job of a woman, granted when the child is born. It only takes about 20 years, I was once told. For the record, I hadn’t asked the question, the advice was just offered. But I rather liked not sleeping nights, stepping on scattered toys, waking up at all odd hours of night to fix a curtain or give a hug, telling quiet stories to get little eyelashes to flutter shut when my own were not far from doing the same, squeezing my creative brain to come up with funny foods for the picky eater, that would also help raise a healthy body. But most of all, I liked the existential questions, coming at the most unbelievable times, when all I had prepared was the “let’s talk about it later” speech.
The newest one is on pets. The door opened and a happy voice yelled: “This is Alex, he is our new pet!”… Oh, no! We do not need a new pet, we’ve got plenty of pets. I turned around to lay eyes on Alex and prepared to deliver my “no more pets in this home” speech. Little foot was proudly holding a jar. It had a vent at the top and there were leaves inside. A caterpillar came in that jar from “Seed and read”…Hmm. Now that was not a pet by my calculations…So as I figured, it will either get lost or get eaten by the existent pets. No biggie.
The issue became clear though…little foot had every intention to consider Alex a pet! “Alex will sleep in my room”. Translation: Alex was in the bed already. Try as I might, I could not get any sense into the matter. Well, how hard can it be? I’ll give it a try. It seems that it was not the best idea, as I now have four pets to tend to, and two children, one of which is fully grown…and a “new home for Alex that includes the “dirt bed” with a few rocks “for authenticity”…
So, if you have any words of wisdom on caterpillar care, now’s the time to hand them over! I am on a mission to teach little foot applied parenting! And maybe a little understanding of the fact that parenting comes with a lot more than just having someone to play with.
we are growing caterpillars as well…the big furry one become gypsy moths, I think. They love to nest (and destroy) birch trees….they’re cute little fuzzys tho…
Thank you – now to fond some birch….
we tried all sorts of leaves, the poor creature didn’t come with any pantry provisions…we found some leaves to its liking today, though…birch is not easily found on the beach, I’m afraid
Be sure to lightly sprinkle a little water on those leaves so it has something to drink…sprinkle – not pour (that’s the hard part…along with don’t put the glass jar or bottle in direct sunlight…don’t want baked pet). Good luck!
Fortunately it rained, so the leaves are all “sprinkled” anyway. Thank you for the tips! It is apparently a salt water marsh moth…not bad looking when it comes out.