Protecting your young

Mother Duck protesting at unauthorized photos being taken of her gorgeous, fluffy, yellow babies.

I know how she feels.

Not about photos or fluffy babies, obviously, but of that innate protection response, of rising up in defence of your young. Mothering, protection and defence can be so primal and instinctive. While other aspects of parenting are like preparing for battle, requiring a plan, a strategy, complex psychology and forethought.

And where is the line between protection and suffocation, discipline and oppression, support and interference, or between freedom and neglect? I am not always sure and have so wavered and stumbled and crossed one or another. As they get older the lines are always changing.

In the end, I guess you just have to decide on a plan of attack and a line of defence. Better to raise your wings in protection than to throw up your hands in defeat.