I have a 15 (nearly 16) year old son. He's a poet at heart, and just refuses to learn the technical things that would allow him to purge the crap that he carries around all the time. He brings me bits and scraps of things he's jotted down while on the bus or in the middle of math class - things that make me want to swoon, if not for the misspellings, lack of punctuation, chicken scrawled handwriting, obvious grammar problems, etc.
He has huge potential, and equally huge teenage tendencies to resist my advice. I'm Mom for goodness sakes, the dumbass in the family.The out of touch know-nothing that wants to control his life.
And he's funny! He came in yesterday to tell me that the bradford pear trees are fully bloomed at school, that they're really pretty - but that they smell like fish. This is funny, and scarey, because he doesn't mean fish at all, and I wonder how he would know what "fish" smells like, or if this is something he heard someone else say.
I once entertained the idea that he and I were close enough that he'd share theinformation with me when he lost his virginity. What a fool I was to think such a thing! We are close, but not that close anymore I don't think. I was delegated, at least part-time, to the enemy camp when I didn't try to save him from the court/probation thing. Not that I could have if I'd tried, but I didn't try. He needed to learn the lesson, and it has put a wall of sorts, a curtain at least, between us.
Oh E,
ReplyDeleteI think that the day the curtain... or the wall comes up between me and Jonas, some part of me will die. Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that it'll never happen.
At what point, exactly, does Mom go from center of the universe to some old lady who has no clue?
As far as dating and virginity goes, Wil and I have decided that Jonas is going to be required to live at home until he's 30.:)
Seriously though, it's cool that your son has the poet in him, whether he wants to admit it now or not. When he gets older, and it's ok to have feelings again, he'll get in touch with it, I think.
i forgot what a stickler you are when it comes to grammar. but there's nothing wrong with that, because you have to learn the basics before you may fly in poetry's sky. your son is lucky to have such a great poet as his mother ~ jack
ReplyDeleteErin, I hope to someday speak with autrhority on subjects such as children, grammar and allowing folks to learn from their own mistakes (as you seem to want your son to do), but alas, that day probably won't be today. Even so we're out here, in the ether, we hear you and sympathize if not completely understand from first-hand experience. Peace and all good things! :-)
ReplyDeleteAng~
ReplyDeleteI don't know if there's a given age, my 14 yr old closed up a few years ago, my 15 yr old closed up in the last 6 months (upon entering highschool) but yes, it does sort of kill a little piece of you. When they're little, you share everything, especially if you breastfed (which is a whole different blog entry!) Don't worry though, by the time it happens, they've killed you a little at a time over the years, just enough that it's not so shocking, lol.
Jack~ Lol, I, believe it or not, am not the stickler about grammar, or a lot of other things, that I once was, glad to see you here!
Mike~ I doubt I speak with authority on much of anything - but I follow L's philosophy (been to her blog yet? Lady L's Blog over there --->
I agree with Lady L. I work with a whooooooole bunch of people like that talking to customers advising them of what position to take in the commodities market most of which look like the picture in our year books under, "Most Likely to wear floods, pocket protectors and a piece of tape on their eyeglass stems." Ok, not all of them.... :-)
ReplyDeletehey now! what's wrong with pocket protectors? :) E, how does he not know what fish smells like or am I having a suprisingly clean mind at the moment?
ReplyDeletelmao L
ReplyDeleteStop thinking so clean dear. Where's that nassy minded L we're all so used to!?
haha I always felt the same about math class - and I still can't freakin do math :|
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