... and somewhere my mom is laughing. I know this because she does whenever I say this to her. I don't generally say it as if it's a revelation but rather as a confirmation for her over the many times she thought the same about me and my sibling. This morning I did the unthinkable. I left my son home, in bed asleep and went to work. I had given him his 'good mornings', made enough noise that he should have woken up and did all of the things I normally do. But I didn't actually wake him up or turn his light on. He really should be able to do this on his own. When he woke up a couple hours later he tried to talk his dad into driving him to school. Thankfully we'd already talked and my dear hubby just walked out the front door and said he had errands to run. He called me from the road a few moments later to let me know that he'd seen a VERY unhappy boy walking to school on his way home from the store. My son survived the day though we may not survive the long weekend as he is quite determined to make sure we know he's unhappy. I recently read "Parenting Teens with Love and Logic" - while I may not agree with everything in there I do believe that there really is no reasoning with teens at certain points in their lives. This is one of them. We have struggled for a long time to know how to raise both of our kids - our son in particular. What we've concluded is that this isn't a dress rehearsal for life - it is life. We only have a few short years left to get him ready (or not) to be on his own. Sure I want him to get good grades. I want him to have friends. I want him to get to school on time. But short of doing it for him, I can't make him do it. So - painful as it was hearing from co-workers and friends that my child wasn't at school on time I let him fail. It'll probably happen again. We'll probably have to buy a few alarm clocks (well, if I follow Love and Logic, he'll have to buy a few alarm clocks) and maybe patch a few holes in the wall. But we'll have a better child for it. At least I keep telling myself that. -Sigh- This parenting thing isn't easy.... :o)
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
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