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Saturday, 12 September 2009 22:03 |
when’s the last time you really did something different? seriously, how have you changed over the past year? what is it in life that you see differently now than you used to?
so, my oldest son, who’s a seventh grader, really surprised my wife and me when he announced a couple of weeks ago that “yeh, I want to play football.” now, as a parent, you know your kids pretty well. and usually in those early years, much better than they know themselves. does that stir those memories of how your mom always seemed to have that right answer? remember how you cringed when you realized that, like a prophetess, all those words you fought against were coming true right in front of your eyes? “if you quit piano now, you’ll regret it later.” back to the point, we really pegged our son for the artsy / musical type. he loved all those types of things since birth, and really had no or little interest in sports. but man, puberty happened! and so, hitting things, knocking guys around, just all out full-throttle things are now very appealing to him. he’s waking up at 5:30am to make it to before school practice! and honestly, there’s a giggly, gushing type of excitement in me about watching my own son play football. and I remember when sitting at an a&m game, when both our boys were toddlers, leaning over to Shannon and stating, “man, one day that might be our boys out on that field.” and she responded with that great line from the water boy, “futball is from the devil.”
it really had me thinking about how i shouldn’t ever assume or dictate the things my kids will grow to love. i don’t want to be a parent who puts my kids on a track. I was pleased and excited about this new found love of his, even if it was proving all my assumptions and forecasting about his life wrong. dude, git yer popcorn, I’m ready to watch my boy bust up some football!
and then….. well, as he was heading off to bed one night last week he says, “dad, I don’t think I want to play football anymore.” and just like that, it was over. a football career cut short after 2 weeks of practice. so, I grounded him for a month. not really.
all of that leads me to this point…..
which I’ll post next week.
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