What I've Learned About Parenting from the Robin Family

In a time that seems longer ago than it was, when we lived in a 100 year old Victorian house with a huge front porch, the kids told me that there was a birds nest in the porch.

I took a look, and sure enough, there was a Robin's nest with a couple little blue eggs, right there in the corner.

They asked how I was going to get it out and I told them I wasn't as the Robin Family wasn't causing any problems.

For awhile they kept track of it and when the eggs didn't hatch fast enough, the boys lost interest. Until they did hatch. After which time they lost interest again.

One day I saw one of the two baby Robin's sitting on the porch. Mom was gone and I decided to just leave the baby till she came back.

Sure enough, awhile later, both babies were safely in the nest and Momma Robin would squawk to let me know she knew I was there.

This was a scene that repeated a few times.

I imagined Momma Robin had been telling the youngster he wasn't ready to fly and when the time came she'd teach him. Then he'd be on the porch again.

He kept turning up on the porch while his mom and sibling would be in the yard.

I was pretty sure the mom knew how to teach her young to fly since the other one seemed to be getting around. Kid probably insisted on doing it his own way.

One day I finally saw him in the grass. Chirping away. No Mom or sibling in sight but again I decided to leave him for Momma Robin to deal with.

The next morning all three were gone from the nest!

When I came home from work, all three were still gone.

Or so I thought.

Sitting on the porch after dinner I began to hear chirping.

Next to the porch, under a bush was the baby bird. Still no Momma Robin or sibling in sight.

I finally broke down and picked him (or her) up gently in my hands and gave a little toss to help him get flying. (Don't worry, I used to train pet birds and still have one, I know what I'm doing!). Down he went into the grass.

He was back under the bush when it got dark.

In the morning he was gone.

I think after two nights under a bush, maybe he thought back to what Momma Robin had tried to teach him and was able to get himself airborne at the crack of dawn to go hunting for food.

Neither Momma nor sibling ever returned.

What the Robin Family taught me about parenting is that, sometimes you can try to warn your kids about pitfalls, and teach them how to be on their own, and some of them will keep jumping and hitting the ground until they're banged up, bruised and hungry enough to fly on their own.

I also learned that in this case, Momma Robin had places to go and things to do and couldn't waste time in last seasons nest with more lessons that would be ignored.

I'm sure that Baby Robin had a great life once he knew he had only himself to rely on

Thanks for reading.

Time for me to fly.