Mr. & Mrs. Duck and Their Ducklings

Many years ago, Anne and I were visiting some of our family who were living in Stuttgart, Germany. We decided to do some touring of Europe with them. I do have two fond memories of our adventures together in Belgium. The first included visiting a barn, and the second involved watching a family of ducks.
 

We were staying at a local B&B close to a dairy farm. My father was raised on a dairy farm and his brother and several of my uncles were dairy farmers, so I was fascinated by having a working dairy farm just down the road from us. One early evening I invited Anne to go with me, for a walk and we headed towards this farm with its huge barn. I bet it held 30 head of cows at each milking. 


We were graciously allowed to go inside and walk through the barn. The first thing that struck me was that it was how immaculate it was. The floors had been thoroughly cleaned, the tools were hanging neatly on the wall, and the walls were painted white. It was an impressive barn.


The next morning our family woke up early, anxious to get started on our planned adventures. We quickly ate breakfast, brushed our teeth, loaded the car, and were excited to be on our way. We hadn’t gone very far when our son, Paul, pulled the car over to the side of the road to adjust our GPS so we could reach our destination using the most direct and effective route. 


While sitting there bored and wanting to get moving, I noticed that we were near the pond of Mr. & Mrs. Duck and their large brood of recently hatched ducklings. 


I was fascinated watching them sitting on the edge of the pond with their little family. They were really trying to get those ducklings into the pond but it appeared to me that they were having so much fun playing on the bank that they didn’t seem interested or inclined to listen to their parents and follow them into the pond.


The conscientious parents appeared to get more and more frustrated as they kept trying to round up their family and get them to do what they thought needed to be done for the day. I started projecting my own parental instincts and thoughts onto them, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that these parents had challenges unique to their family that I didn’t have with mine. First of all, these parents had only a couple of months rather than years to prepare their youngsters to leave the nest, ready to go out into the big and dangerous world and survive on their own. Eventually the youngsters took the hint and got in the pond as their parents wished. Not understanding ‘Duckeeze’ I don’t know exactly what was said to the little ones that finally motivated them to comply with their parents’ wishes. 


These parents seemed to know that the day for saying goodbye to their little ones was rapidly approaching and they were far from being prepared. When they finally succeeded in getting their family’s attention, they immediately started to work on fine-tuning those skills that would serve them, well when they were on their own. To my eye, it seemed that one parent had three of the ducklings in the pond for more swimming practice, while the other parent gathered the rest to work on their preening techniques. 


At first, I thought, “What a waste of valuable time” but then I learned the importance of preening. Little ducks must learn to preen their feathers in order to survive cold water. It’s how they waterproof their feathers so they can provide them with natural insulation. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Duck were teaching their posterity to remove dirt as well as parasites from their feathers. 


As I watched these ducks work hard with their brood it made me think about the responsibilities we have as parents to prepare our children for their life journey a journey which may be long and challenging. 


Ducks have only a few short weeks to train their little ones and rely on their natural instincts to use this time wisely. The question I have for all of us parents is how are we doing managing the time we have with our children? Can we learn anything from the ducks?


Happy Failing Forward,


Calvert Cazier



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