Skip to main content

Why Kids Need Pets

My chickens were my first babies. We have had chickens since before any of my children were born. I'd always dreamed of farm fresh eggs from backyard hens, and when my husband surprised me one day with a small coop and four chickens, I was elated. 

Our family began soon after, and when my daughter was just one week old, we had her out in the yard meeting the chickens. Then when she was old enough to be mobile, she learned how to walk by chasing them around the yard. Those chickens were her first friends, and important members of our family. I know the usual household pets are dogs, cats, maybe a hampster, but the chickens have taught my children so much. They've learned responsibility and care of others, as it is their job to feed, water, and collect the eggs each day. They've also learned appreciation for the life cycle and for other beings. 

I love chickens so much because they give the gift of an egg each day! Cats and dogs only gift you with poop you have to pick up! Not only do our farm-fresh eggs provide my family and my children with the best nutrition, it's also been a lesson in symbiotic relationships--because we give such good care to our chickens, they show their appreciation by providing us with delicious eggs. 

 

Additionally, it teaches valuable lessons in the care of living beings and the life cycle of animals. We've incubated eggs and raised chicks from broody hens, and supporting their life and growth has taught my children the lesson of how beautiful yet fragile life is. We've also lost many beloved chickens to predators (hawks, foxes, sickness) and overcoming these losses has taught my children resilience and the importance of life. 

 


One funny and unexpected result of raising chickens alongside raising my children, is the chickens helped to potty train my toddler! Because we had baby chicks in the house during the cool days of early spring, we'd let them out to play with us and we had  to be diligent about cleaning up their droppings on the hardwood floor. This taught my daughter our household slang for poop "po-po," as we call it, and she quickly connected the idea to what the baby chicks left on the floor to what she did in her diaper. So soon she was telling me "po-po" when she had to use the bathroom, and then she was potty trained by 20-months-old!




Comments

  1. Jed54June 21, 2021 at 5:18 AM

    Many lessons can be learned- most important acts of responsibility, nurturance and calm.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is 5 Little Monkeys Racist?

I’ve seen a lot of Tik Toks debunking children’s nursery rhymes lately. I have two toddlers, so now whenever I hear one of those rhymes, I think about their unsavory origins. But my son loves, loves Five Little Monkeys. He’s just learning to talk, and can almost say it by himself. I’ve thought about telling him to stop singing it since I learned in the original lyrics it’s not monkeys jumping on the bed, but he just gets so much joy from singing it as he jumps up and falls down, I thought... no harm, no foul, right? As long as he thinks the song is about monkeys, it’s ok.  Until my niece came over one day, and the three toddlers were playing on an old mattress we have on the living room floor for them to jump around on. My son asked me to sing 5 Little Monkeys. At first it was cute, because they literally were jumping on the bed, but then I took a good look at the three of them.  My kids are half-Guatemalan but very fair, like I am. Whereas my niece is half-black, and her ski...
2 comments
Read more

Why You Should Travel with Little Kids

I took my first cross-country road trip when I was six-weeks-old. My parents loaded me up in an old Ford Wagoneer and drove me home from my dad's hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, to my hometown of Ojai, CA. After that, we traveled back and forth between the East Coast and the West Coast every summer of my life. A few times we flew, but most years we loaded up the car with the suitcases, the dogs, and the children and drove 3,000 miles across the country. This early exposure to travel instilled within me a joy of seeing the world, and since that first trip I have visited 34 states and 14 countries. And I hope to share that same joy with my own little ones. Traveling with children can be hard--it disrupts their nap schedules, may involve crossing timelines, and definitely pushes everyone beyond their comfort zones. But seeing different countries and different parts of our country as children gives them a greater appreciation for cultural and regional differences, and it widens their exper...
10 comments
Read more

Toddler Morning Schedule in Spanish

Do you struggle to get your toddlers ready and out of the house on time in the morning? The past few morning in the Barrios house have been absolutely terrible. Maya usually wakes up early with me, but I let Mateo sleep until the last possible moment before we need to wake him up to get to school and work on time. This worked for a while, but this week we have left the house in tears.  Since this is the kids' first year apart during the day, they miss each other so much. They want to play with each other in the mornings instead of getting ready, so I tried to think of a way to keep all of us on track.  In order to help build their independence and organizational skills, I came up with a morning schedule for us to follow, with words and images. Then I placed a Maya copy and a Mateo copy in a clear dry-erase pocket and hung it in a central place by the kitchen. Now the kids know exactly what they need to do  in order to get time to play with each other before school each mo...
Post a Comment
Read more