There’s always debate about parenting styles. Are you a hovering helicopter mom? Are you a ferocious mama bear? Do you believe in letting your little one roam free to learn on their own?
Yesterday at the zoo, we encountered the “goose mama.”
Because it is springtime, the zoo is filled with babies. Baby prairies dogs, baby servals, baby porcupines, and baby goslings.
We decided to have a little lunch at the zoo. The geese mama’s apparently wanted their babies to have lunch as well. The geese and goslings aggressively circled our table, eyeing Miss 6’s french fries and Miss 4’s corn dog. Miss 1 waved her little french fry in the air yelling, “mine!” and then handed it over to me for safe keeping. Goslings crawled under the table, and Miss 6 crawled onto my lap and cried. The poor woman at the table near ours lost her fight with the geese, when one of them darted in and nabbed her lunch, spilling it all over the ground. Her child cried, too.
You can see the analogy here, right?
The goose mama’s priorities were all in line. She wanted to provide for her new little family. But she was overly aggressive, much too tenacious, and well, downright, scary.
I have met other moms who want to protect and provide, but end up coming on too strong. Instead of others rushing in to help them and their little ones, others tend to rush away from them.
Yesterday, besides our zoo trip, I also had to go meet with the principle to discuss some concerns I have been having and some things I would like to see happen. I typically shy away from these types of conversations, but after watching one of my girls begin to struggle because of a teaching style that doesn’t seem to agree with her, I knew I had to act. It was difficult for me. I am not a goose mama. I am an anti-goose mama. I don’t want to be a goose mama. But I do want my girls to succeed, so I am learning to be a little more aggressive, and a little more tenacious, without (hopefully!) becoming scary.
The principal was kind, it didn’t look like she wanted to back away from me or start crying, so I think I succeeded. : )
