Gobble Gobble let's talk turkey. I love turkey. I love Thanksgiving. I love any holiday that involves a massive amount of food and thankfulness. I love cooking and eating turkey. I have always felt that turkey was the original slow cooked meal before there were crock pots. It takes some time to prepare the bird but once it is in the oven most of the work is done. You can sit back and relax while the oven roasts the turkey to perfection with the occasional basting. I like to think that I raise my kids the same way I roast a turkey.
Preparing a turkey is a metaphor for raising children to me. To get the turkey ready for the oven it takes a lot of work. A turkey must be thawed for days before anything can be prepared. A baby must be grown for months inside of a womb. Whether you are waiting for your baby to grow or your turkey to thaw both require very little action except to wait. When the day arrives and it is time for the turkey or baby to come out that is when the work starts. Turkeys require a lot of preparation using a brine, seasoning the outside, or stuffing the inside. The hardest part of cooking a turkey is getting it ready to actually cook. Kids are the same way. Babies and toddlers require a lot of preparation before becoming good human beings. Keeping a baby alive with constant feedings, diaper changes, or forced naps is a lot of work. Steering a toddler to become a good person is a full time job. Time outs, rewards for good choices, and other disciplinary gymnastics are just a small part of the amount of work that goes into a toddler. Before the turkey is oven ready all the prep must be completed. Before the toddler is kindergarten ready all the prep must be completed.
Once the turkey is in the oven the workload changes. We have moved onto basting and general turkey maintenance while watching the turkey cook to perfection. Once the kids are in elementary school the workload changes. Daily mental check-ins are required to make sure that they are following all the rules set forth and baking into the perfect human versions of themselves. If we forget to bast the turkey it will end up dry and tough. If we forget to check in with our kids daily they end up sad and tough. I want to make sure our girls know that we care a great deal about what happens to them everyday. Keeping an eye on the turkey to make sure it doesn't overcook is super important. Keeping an eye on our kids to make sure something is not overcooking them is also important. I want to notice when something is upsetting my girls. I want to notice when there is something important to my girls. I want to notice when something is exciting to my girls. The only way that I can notice all these things is to keep an eye on them while they are cooking.
Finally the turkey is done cooking and ready for carving and eating. Finally kids are done cooking and ready to go into the world to be carved and eaten. In order to eat this delicious turkey you must cut into it so that it is no longer recognizable as a turkey. By the time my girls are finished with school and ready to embark into the real world they will be totally different people. They are still the same sweet little turkeys that I gave birth to all those years ago but they are now ready for whatever the world has to throw at them. They are ready to be carved and eaten by this crazy world we live in and I can say with confidence our three girls are definitely going to going to cut back. We are raising three strong independent women that are growing into amazing humans. I can't wait to see how cool they are going to be as adults and all the things they are going to do. I'm going to enjoy eating all the turkey while raising my own little turkeys. I hope you all do the same. Happy Thanksgiving.
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