This morning, I am sitting in the family room, reading a memoir and nursing a sore throat with cough drops. Boy turning 13 tomorrow comes bounding down the stairs in bare feet, wearing jeans, a white tee and black suspenders. He is dribbling a soccer ball.
Me: "Honey, why are you wearing suspenders?" Him: "Because they're awesome." Pause. He continues. "You know how chicks dig suspenders?" He dribbles the ball out the back door.
It is hard to believe this boy is leaving childhood behind. He looks more and more like his grandfather and his father every day. Tomorrow he heads a few counties away for an away game with his travel soccer team. He is the goal keeper. Next weekend, he wants his dad to take three of his friends and him to see Paranormal Activity 4, a supernatural horror movie, and then go to the restaurant next door for ribs. We are still waiting to hear if parents will let their boys go to an R rated movie.
He just came back into the house. "Are these chips for me?" he says from the kitchen. "yeah, they are," he answers his own question. It's not even 10 a.m.
Oh my, the teenage years scare me. I hope my children grow up to be as sweet and well adjusted as yours. I was just thinking last night how fast 10 years goes by and how old my children will be in 10 years- all teens! I am feeling very thankful today for their fleeting childhood.
ReplyDeleteSarah: I have hardly "mastered" being the mother of teens. I will say one thing that is critically important is just what you are doing now: building a relationship. Our sons have had their moments but we always can talk about it. Communication is so important. Controlling an older teen is not really possible or desirable, in my opinion. At some point, they have minds and bodies of their own and we can't control the choices they make. Guide them? Love them? Absolutely. Phew.
DeleteLove these posts about your sons, partly 'cause I never had 'em. And was one. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Webster!
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