Then I will...

     If you could compare yourself to any fictional character, who would it be? Most of the time I feel like the little red hen. You know about her right? She did all of the cooking, housework, yard work and even gardening. Her household companions were too lazy to help with any of the work.

     I remember as a child, whenever my siblings and I started complaining about our chores, or that we had nothing to eat, my mom would tell us a story. It was always the story of the little red hen. (I’m fairly certain that her mother used this tactic on her as a kid!!)

    Have you heard the story? It was written by Paul Galdone in 1979, and is a classic folktale of vindication, or at least a good lesson learned. The story starts with a little red hen and her housemates (dog, cat and mouse) and they won’t do anything, so she has to do all the work. One day she finds some wheat and wants to make something yummy with it, so she asks for help. Each step she asks and at each turn they reply “Not I”. Until finally she asks who will help her EAT the bread, at that they reply “I will”, but she doesn’t let them because they didn’t help her before. The moral of the tale is to help out so you can get the reward (Galdone, 1979).

     My mother told us that story probably a million times. Then we would have our little red hen experience. My mom would ask for help, and if we helped we got a treat, if not, she would eat the treat herself. It was always something delicious too.

     Now that I am a mother, I have these little red hen moments too. When life gets crazy and the kids start getting lazy, we read the story of the little red hen, just to get the point across. So for a few months at least the kids are helpful and kind. Unfortunately this is a lesson that needs to be taught A LOT!! That’s ok though, because I just love the story and the moral that it teaches.

     It doesn’t just teach the kids that they need to help out around the house in order to get reward. It teaches how to build character. It teaches the necessity of cleanliness, hard work, serving one another, and sharing. It teaches that being lazy isn’t a good thing, but that hard work brings satisfaction. It teaches that working together for something is priceless.

     When I read that story, sometimes I feel like the little red hen is almost sad that she has to eat the bread herself. She wants her family to help and take part, but she had to teach them a hard lesson. Just one time I want to read the story of little red hen and see the change in her family, and watch them all able to eat the bread together at the end. Maybe it could go something like this….

Once upon a time a cat, a dog, a mouse and a little red hen all lived together in a cozy little house. The cat liked to sleep all day on the soft couch. The dog like to nap all day on the sunny back porch. And the mouse like to snooze all day in the warm chair by the fireside. So the little red hen had to do all the housework. She cooked the meals and washed the dishes and made the beds. She swept the floor and washed the windows and mended the clothes. She raked the leaves and mowed the grass and hoed the garden. One day when she was hoeing the garden she found some grains of wheat. ‘Who will plant this wheat?’ cried the little red hen. ‘Not I’ said the cat. ‘Not I’ said the dog. ‘Not I’ said the mouse. ‘Then I will’ said the little red hen. And she did. Each morning the little red hen watered the wheat and pulled the weeds. Soon the wheat pushed through the ground and began to grow tall. When the wheat was ripe, the little red hen asked ‘Who will cut this wheat?” (Galdone, 1979)

… noticing all of the hard work that little red hen was doing, the dog said “I will help you cut the wheat”. When they had finished cutting the wheat the little red hen asks “Who will take this wheat to the mill to be ground into flour?” Seeing how much fun hen and dog were having, cat volunteered to help. When cat brought back the flour, little red hen asks “Who will make a cake from this fine white flour?” The mouse loved to smell all the yummy things little red hen baked and wanted to help out. So the little red hen and mouse made a cake, and put it in the oven. As the delicious smell of the cake wafted through the house, cat, dog, mouse and little red hen were anxious to eat the cake. “Who will eat this cake?” asks the little red hen when it is done baking. “I will” they all cried. The little red hen said “I planted the wheat, but dog helped me cut the wheat, and cat helped turn it into flour, and mouse helped me make the cake- so yes, we will all eat the cake!” And they all shared the cake, and continued to work together and help each other out.

     Now wouldn't that be a great ending to the story?

photo from www.jdstoneart.com/little-red-hen

Galdone, P. (1979). The Little Red Hen. New York, NY. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.