That's What Moms Do

When Steve came in this morning after retrieving the morning newspaper, he said there was a baby bird out on the driveway. I looked out, and sure enough, there he was, chirping away. I kept watching for much of the morning. I noticed there were other birds out on the lawn - obviously bird babysitters. Soon I saw the mama blue jay come in with Chirpy's breakfast. She left to go to the worm market, and Chripy continued his song out in the sun.

Being the over-protective mother that I am, I became concerned that if he stayed out in the sun all morning, without sunscreen, that he would soon be bird fricassee. So, I stuck some straw and lint and a bowl of birdseed in a temporarily abandoned birdbath and took it out underneath a tree. I scooped Chirpy in a saucer (no direct touching) and deposited him in the new digs and then retreated to my observation window. Soon enough Mama Bird came back with more breakfast. A squirrel came down to check things out. Chirpy hopped around, and soon hopped off the birdbath and headed back to the driveway. Mama Bird returned again, probably lecturing Chirpy on leaving the safety of the sorry-human bird nest.

But she kept feeding Chirpy as he kept hopping toward our neighbor's yard. Even Daddy Bird showed up, probably because Mama Bird had a word with him. The best part was seeing Chirpy flap his little wings and end up on the higher ledge. It made me hopeful that eventually he'd figure out his wings and fly away.

I had to go prepare for Curves and by the time I returned, Chirpy and family were nowhere to be seen. I have no idea what happened - if he figured out how to fly, if some other animal mom decided he would be breakfast for her babies, or if he's hopping his way to the zoo. But the whole event reminded me of two other moms in the same predicament.

Last night my sister Marilyn and I were commiserating and laughing about our middle daughters. Her daughter Lucy is currently in Italy, and had called her mom to ask Marilyn to do all the legwork and change her airline ticket for an extended stay. My daughter Maribeth is in France and has started an online class and needed her textbook for the first assignment. So Marilyn is on the phone with airlines and schedules and Lucy, making things work. I am in my office, scanning and google-documenting, and emailing 49 pages of a textbook.

Marilyn and I had to laugh, because no matter where our children seem to end up, we are always there to do what we can to help them. Just like Mama Bird probably blasted Chirpy for leaving the next too early and not taking advantage of a new safe nest, she was also feeding him and urging him to try out his wings.

Taking care of our kids no matter where they are or how big they get, and looking with proud love when they do use those wings - that's just what moms do. And in the end, we know how blessed we are to do it!