So my seven-year-old daughter went out to collect the daily egg in the chicken coop on our pool deck, and she reported that her pet chicken Sparkle had laid two eggs!

 

What that really means is, we did not pick up yesterday’s egg, but I have assurances from Savvy’s grandma (who has 40 chickens of her own), that leaving one egg out there overnight is no big deal. It’s still okay to eat.

 

So Savvy went to collect the two eggs.

 

This requires kind of climbing into the coop and reaching into the cat carrier box that Sparkle makes her a little home in. And since we are still learning how much we can carry, Savvy tried to take both eggs out at the same time. And then stepped over the threshold and lowered the net back down over the coop. Which resulted in her dropping the eggs onto the pool deck.

 

Which, as you might guess, didn’t bode very well for the eggs.

 

Savvy immediately began to cry. I was in my office and didn’t really know what was going on. When Michele said that Savvy broke the eggs, we thought Savvy was embarrassed over not being able to do something that a big girl should be able to do.

 

Nope.

 

We got her calmed down and I picked up the eggs – they were what I would call cracked pretty badly, but only a little of the egg white had actually come out. I cradled them in my hands and took them inside and my wife and I both explained that accidents happen and this is no big deal and she didn’t need to cry.

 

So once I got inside I was about to throw them away when I thought, you know what? They’re fresh eggs. Why don’t I just crack them into a bowl and show my daughter that nothing too awful really happened. Worst case, scrambled eggs for breakfast.

 

I brought her in and showed her the two eggs in the bowl. She was still sniffling a bit.

The yolks were unbroken. I told her if wanted to have this for breakfast, we could just put them in the fridge overnight and they would be fine. Again, no reason to cry.

 

And of course, me being me, I couldn’t let it go. “Why were you crying so hard, sweetie?”

 

“Because I dropped the eggs and they broke.”

 

More sniffles. Gotta tread carefully here or she’ll start up again. “Yes I know. I don’t think that warrants all this.”

 

She looked down. “I thought I might have hurt Sparkle’s feelings.”

 

And that is why I had two fried eggs for dinner last night.

 

Because any kid who’s that conscientious of other people’s feelings deserves to know there’s a wide margin for error. Even if the aggrieved party is a chicken.