Ducks.... Musings on a Spring Vacation

Sitting by the pool at a Rancho Mirage, CA resort, I noticed a family of ducks--well, not quite a family.  The mother duck appeared to be overseeing her brood of five babies in the nearby pond; possibly teaching them to swim well and stay in line.  Of course part of learning to obey Mama is to sometimes disobey.  I went back to my reading, only to be disturbed about ten minutes later by a high pitched "qwak qwak".  As I looked to my right, I immediately noticed one lone baby frantically swimming back and forth, back and forth; no mama in sight...however, I then noted the Papa.  He was not more than a few feet away from the squawking duckling, paying no attention whatsoever.  He appeared to be deeply absorbed in his own reflections or quite intentionally "not" listening to his offspring's despair. This continued for a few minutes before Mama came racing (as quickly as a duck can waddle) to the edge of the pond, wherein the repentant offspring swam directly to her and scrambled up the slope to join his siblings.  As I continued to watch, the Papa made his way slowly across the pond, and in a rather pompous and deliberate fashion, meandered his way over to his family.

Of course this humorous scene from nature made me ponder about how we humans have been created with some similarities to our animal friends.  The strong maternal instincts and instruction methods of the female versus the male:  the way I have seen my husband calmly observe our kids or grandkids in situations that have struck a bit of terror in me.  Though not exactly unworried he just had a keen sense that the kid would figure it out without a lot of drama!  On the other hand, a constant barrage of whining kid does somehow correctly reflect that oblivious Papa Duck (think, reading his paper or watching his sports team)--we have seen it many times in both our husbands .....and if we are completely truthful, also in ourselves.  Moral of the story:  males and females are different in their parenting approaches, but work out of the same context, love of their child.