What Our Rabbit Reminded Me About Connection

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

Photo of a white rabbit with brown spots sitting on a blue couch arm; text: What our rabbit reminded me about connection

I felt a nipping at my jeans and looked down. “Hey, stop that!” I chided our pet rabbit Hoppity. I frowned. “You have plenty of hay, water…do you want attention?” Softening, I sat down criss-cross on my son’s floor. The bunny hopped over and started licking my jeans. I petted him, running my hand over his soft ears and back. He hopped onto my leg and started licking my other one. I smiled, realizing that this is the first time he had hopped into my lap that didn’t involve food.

What was first a moment of annoyance turned into a moment of connection.

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The Blurred Clarity of Memory

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

Photo of two children and a woman in hiking clothes hiking down a trail covered in leaves; text: The Blurred Clarity of Memory

“First we took the orange trail and then red and we came down the green,” my older son said from the backseat of the car. I stared at the phone in my hand, where I had pulled up a map of hiking trails. No, he couldn’t have remembered it that clearly. We hiked it two years ago. This is a kid who forgets things minutes after I say them. I looked again. He was right – that was exactly what we had done.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said.

Memory makes things strange.

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On Flowers and Children and Unplanned Beauty

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Photo of a bumblebee on a marigold flower; On Flowers and Children and Unexpected Beauty

A small brown haired head with flecks of blond leans down. My son’s nose is almost touching a bright orange flower, its torn pedals sprouting from a huge green stem. In the middle of the flower, there’s a fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee butt sticking out. It has its whole face immersed in the flower, guzzling down nectar. My son watches it in wonder, occasionally speaking to it.

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Talking to Kids About Labor Rights

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Cover of the children's book Click Clack Moo Cows Who Type with a cartoon of three cows and a chicken at a typewriter and the text below "Talking to Kids About Labor Rights"

“And make sure not to get Kelloggs,” I commented to my husband as we were putting together the grocery list.

“Why not Kellogg’s?” my older son said, looking up from his book.

“Well, the people who work for Kelloggs are on strike. That means they aren’t working because they want better work conditions, like better pay. Remember in Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type?” I explained, referencing a hilarious children’s book. In it, the cows and chickens go on strike and refuse to give the farmer eggs and milk until he gives them electric blankets. They use an old typewriter to express their concerns. We’ve read it a bunch of times.

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If You Have a Rabbit

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Photo of a white rabbit with brown spots around its eyes and nose on a hardwood floor; text: If You Have a Rabbit

If you give a mouse a place to live (not on purpose), you may not be able to catch them.

If you have a mouse that you cannot catch, then they may try to hide under the dishwasher.

If they hide under the dishwasher, you may try to set a trap there to catch them.

If you set a trap there to catch them, you will have to pull out the dishwasher to check on the trap.

If you have the dishwasher pulled out to check on the trap, your rabbit may try to go under the dishwasher.

If your rabbit goes under the dishwasher, they will definitely chew on the cords under the dishwasher and get nearly electrocuted. (And get you nearly electrocuted trying to get them out.)

If your rabbit chews on the cords, you will need to call an appliance repair person.

So that’s why we’re still waiting on the dishwasher repair person to get in a part.

Why I Bike My Kids to School

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Photo of a bunch of bikes on a bike rack with a cargo bike in front of it; text: Why I Bike My Kids to School

“Hi!” my older son chirps to people walking by on the sidewalk as he pedals by on his bike. A few minutes later, he yells to me about the injustice of how short the green is on this traffic light – we’re stopped at a red light *again* – and how we have to wait for it. Honestly, of all the things he could get angry about, it’s pretty harmless. Throughout the ride, my younger son chatters away sitting behind me, telling me all the observations he held in during class.

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When a Fun Fact is More Than a Fun Fact

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Photo of a boy holding his arms up to a silhouette of a bird on a shingled wall; Text: When a Fun Fact Is More than a Fun Fact

“I just wanted to thank you,” said an unfamiliar voice beside me. Looking left, away from the informational plaque I was reading, I saw an older woman standing next to me. “I was behind you and heard you explaining all of the information to your kids and they were so interested. I heard other kids saying that they were bored and I knew your kids weren’t. I even learned a lot!”

“Uh, thanks!” I responded, very flattered. We were at the Whydah Pirate Museum in Cape Cod, a very good historical museum with a wealth of information and artifacts. I had been guiding my kids through by summarizing the informational plaques and connecting the information to concepts my kids were already familiar with. They seemed to be genuinely interested until the very end when my five-year-old understandably began running out of steam. I was too busy carrying on my patter and keeping my kids entertained that I hadn’t even noticed the woman behind us.

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Not Letting Our Childhood Burdens Become Our Kids’ Burdens

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Photo of a white woman taking a selfie of herself in a mirror that says "There is no foot too small that it cannot leave an imprint" Text: "Not Letting Our Childhood Burdens Become Our Kids' Burdens"

“Why do all of these people already have friends?” I thought to myself looking around the elementary school cafeteria during parents night for kindergarten. Clumps of parents sat at long tables, chatting away. Even my anti-social husband had wandered off to talk to someone he knew from preschool. I stifled the urge to get out my phone and stare urgently at the screen. Instead, I read the multi-colored handouts with an intense stare. Being there brought back so many experiences that color my perspective on my kids today.

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Collaborating with Our Children’s Wildness

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Collaborating with My Child's Wildness" Photo of a sunset over the ocean

He runs up to me, his hand loosely grasping mine. I go to squeeze it and he’s gone again, dashing away from the oncoming waves licking at his red and blue sandals.

I stand firm, the water pulling on my feet, flowing back out to the ocean. He darts around me, unpredictable, coming and going, coming and going. The waves can’t be predicted either – sometimes they stop feet from me, sometimes they wash over my knees, pulling me out to the endless water.

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