Caring for Calves and Kids

Picture this: It’s Good Friday – the Friday before Easter. It’s been a long winter and the sun is finally out longer at night, and warmer temperatures are on the horizon. You’re a mom with three kids 5 and under and your husband who is a dairy farmer walks over to you and says, “Can I work on Sunday?”

Now do the math really quick. Sunday means Easter. My first thought is why in the world are you asking me this? It’s a holiday. A time for us to spend together as a family and enlighten our kids as to what the Easter Bunny is.

My second thought is fast and fleeting but needs acknowledgement. That was nice you at least asked instead of just telling me the situation and leaving me with three kids.

My third and final thought was how dare you stick me with our three kids all by myself on a holiday. Not only is it three kids, but it is three young kids in some of the neediest stages of their life. Are you serious? This was a time when we were supposed to do family stuff. A time when I didn’t have to be on 100% of the time for the kids. A time to take a break from the farm which we love so much. How dare you even ask me such a question.

So what are the words that truly come out of my mouth? “Yes, that’s fine, but I will need you to at least come in for lunch.”

Many of you are probably like how can he dare ask that? Or how can you be okay with that as a wife and mom? Well I can tell you I’m not always okay with it (read more about that here), but we run a business and sometimes you need to take care of business in order to be able to spend time with your family. That’s just part of being an entrepreneur.

Another example is as Dairy Farmers, the cows have to be milked twice a day no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you’re sick, the weather is crummy or what have you, they have to be milked. So every Christmas morning many children wake up early to see the presents under the tree they likely open presents around 8 a.m. (or at least that’s what I always assumed), but you see we had to wait until at least after 10 a.m. when the cows had been milked and fed before we could open presents. (Want to talk about teaching kids patience! Ha!) And now that we are dairy farmers and have kids of our own, they know this routine as well. Doesn’t matter if it’s Easter or Christmas my three know they must wait until dad gets home from doing chores.

And that’s the truth about holidays. Many of us wives are either farming ourselves, coordinating kid arrangements or we are attending holiday events and being asked “The husband farming today?” Does it annoy me? Sometimes. Does it make me sad? Most times. But then I think about the lifestyle we have chosen for our family and the pieces of that lifestyle many others don’t get to enjoy like taking a side by side ride through the pasture as the sun sets. Or loading up the family and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the timber on a warm fall day. It’s those experiences that in my heart I feel make up for the not so traditional holidays of farm families.