Maternal Growing Pains
When I first began blogging, I was the mother of a 9-year-old. I wrote about being a single mother, my son dealing with visitation issues with a newly appearing father, and my ongoing custody battle. It was an unhappy time for me, but I treasured the time I had with my son, not thinking about him growing up, getting older, and no longer being a baby.
This past weekend, I had to face the sad fact that my baby is growing up. He went to a school dance. Of course, being a male, he signed the “don’t give too much info to females” contract already, so I did not have very much scoop on the dance, but I was glad he had decided to go. I showed this picture to a friend of mine, who said that Kyle would hate me forever for making him wear a suit to a school dance, but the dance was semi-formal and they were required to dress up.
I’ve realized something, however. Being an introverted person who suffered through female teenage insecurities is not the right person to parent a teenage boy who turns on “Baby Got Back” and shows you how he’s going to dance at the school dance, and when asked “Aren’t you going to be embarrassed when everyone laughs at you?” answers, “No way will anyone laugh, Mom, I’ve GOT THE MOVES!”
I did not realize how old he looked until I started looking at the pictures I had taken. I sent some of them to his dad’s sister, who cried when she saw them because Kyle looks exactly like his dad did at the same age. I did not cry until I looked back and realized time is passing way too quickly. I’m brought back to reality by the following conversation:
“Did you have a good time at the dance?”
“Yeah.”
“Were a lot of people dancing or was it kind of awkward and uncomfortable?”
“A little.”
“Would you say that a lot of kids came with friends or were there more people coupled up?”
“Yeah.”
With these exceptional communication skills, I’d say he’s definitely ready to be released on the female population.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
LOL…I suggest you start using different ways of asking…ask in such a way that one word answers won’t work, and shorter sentences. I do that with my hubs, and it works. Now your son if a pre-teen…that’s way harder.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am
What a super handsome young man- well done, Trish
I like the fact that he’s got the moves and has no fear about it. I was always too shy to bust out on the dance floor when I was growing up.
Hoping Pol will also have ‘moves’.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I think he looks fabulous! And, if he wants to dance big then dance BIG! If you do things with confidence others will follow.
I am so glad my boys are not the only ones who don’t understand the meaning of the word c-o-n-v-e-r-s-a-t-i-o-n.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:31 am
You made me laugh. I have been working on a scrapbook for my son who turned 19 in February. I have laughed and cried looking back over the years. They do grow up so quickly. At 19 we still have conversations like you had with your son, then there are days (usually when I’m watching Idol or something important like that) when he decides he REALLY wants to TALK to his mom. I cherise those times. They grow, they do new things, they move on but they always come back to the one female in their life that has been there for them. It’s a beautiful thing. Enjoy!