One’s Own Children Are Always the Prettiest

One’s Own Children Are Always the Prettiest

One day, a man went into the forest to watch birds. He liked to write in his little notebook where each bird nested, what songs it sang, and when the chicks arrived.

On a narrow path, he met a snipe.

The bird hurried across his way and said,

“Good sir, please don’t come too close to my nest. My little ones are there. They’re still tiny, and they might get frightened.”

“Of course,” the man replied. “I’ll keep away. But tell me, how will I know which chicks are yours?”

The snipe stood up proudly.

“That’s easy! My children are the prettiest in the whole forest.”

“The prettiest?” the man asked.

“Without a doubt!” said the snipe. “If you see the sweetest, loveliest, most wonderful chicks, you’ll know they’re mine.”

“All right, I’ll remember,” the man smiled.

He walked on.

Soon, beside a little mound, he saw some tiny, fluffy chicks.

“How cute!” he whispered. “They’re round and lively, with bright little eyes. These must be the ones the snipe told me about.”

The man quietly stepped away so he wouldn’t disturb them.

A little farther on, he noticed another nest. Several long-legged chicks with funny little beaks peeped out. Their feathers stuck out in every direction. One chick clumsily stepped over a dry blade of grass, while another couldn’t quite settle down beside its brothers and sisters.

“What a funny little bunch,” the man thought. “These can’t be the ‘prettiest in the whole forest.’”

He came a bit closer to make a note in his book.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called across the grass:

“Careful! Those are my children!”

The snipe hurried over to the nest.

The man was surprised.

“Yours? But you said your chicks were the prettiest in the whole forest!”

“And they are!” the snipe answered warmly.

She stood beside the little ones and watched tenderly as one tried to hide beneath a leaf, while another made a funny hop on its thin little legs.

“Just look at them! Those tiny beaks! Those little feet! And what bright eyes! Don’t you see how wonderful they are?”

The man looked at the chicks once more.

Now he no longer noticed their ruffled feathers or clumsy movements. He saw how carefully the snipe tucked grass around the nest, and how the chicks nestled close to her.

Suddenly, he understood.

“I see now,” he said. “To you, they really are the prettiest.”

The snipe tilted her head in surprise.

“How could they be anything else?”

The man laughed.

He moved farther from the nest and wrote in his notebook:

“Today I learned something important. If a mother or father says, ‘My children are the prettiest in the world,’ don’t ask them to describe them more precisely. To a loving heart, that is the most precise description of all.”

Meanwhile, the snipe returned to her little ones and admired them for a long while.

Because, as everyone knows, one’s own children are always the prettiest.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨