Who's Teachin' Who?

Tomorrow is my son’s last day of his sixth grade school year. This fall he will be in junior high school and a couple of months later he will turn 13. Although quite cliché, I have one question for you all: Where in the hell does the time go!!?

In less then five months my son will be a teenager, and yet it seems like just yesterday that he was 12 months old and wearing a plastic bowl on his head. We knew at that point that he was either going to be an astronaut or a sideshow act in a traveling carnival.

I swear to God, that it was just last week that my son was three and donned a cape on his back and jumped off of the back of the couch pretending to be Superman. Of course it turned out that he was more like Clark Kent because we had to take him to the Emergency Room with a broken arm.

I can vividly remember sitting on the living room floor watching TV one Saturday afternoon in 1999. I had been working as a Union Staff Representative for awhile and evidently he had picked up a little too well on the vernacular. A Taco Bell commercial came on and his hero was not on it. He asked me, “Dad where’s the Taco Bell Dog?” I told him that they got rid of him. Without hesitating he said, “We need to boycott the bastards.” I laughed, until I turned around and saw his mom standing there. She shot me the most evil look I had ever seen…well the most evil look since the last time she had asked me what was on my mind.

I have witnessed, in a fleeting moment, Ryan turn from being a soft little bundle of dependent joy into one of the most responsible and mature people I know…and no, I am not exaggerating. A couple of months ago, his mom had asked a couple of guys to go to their house and give her an estimate about cleaning out some overgrown flower beds, adding new topsoil, and applying mulch. She forgot to tell Ryan.

They showed up a few minutes after he got home from school. He saw two strange guys outside of his house and immediately armed himself and went out the backdoor to meet them on the side. He confronted the landscapers holding the phone, three baseballs, and his BB gun. He told them that if they didn’t leave he would start firing and call the police. Fortunately, Mom showed up just in time to diffuse the situation. While we told him never to do that and again and to just dial 911 next time he’s in fear, I was so proud of his sense of duty, and the fact that he just lived through more combat experience than Cheney and Bush combined.

He continues to astound me with his loyalty and generosity. Last night I went over to see him. I told him we would go play miniature golf Saturday. His mom said that she would find some free game coupons she had bought last year. My son said to me, “If Mom cant find them, I have money Dad.” Holy Crap!! The Lifetime Movie Network can’t do better than that!!

I don’t know exactly what my point is but this is what I have learned. I learned a lot from my mom and dad, but I have learned just as much from my son. I have been hit in the face by seeing how quickly my son has matured. In fact, the most important lesson that I have learned from him is how important it is to spend our fleeting days together. The relationship between his mom and I didn’t work out, but we learned to overcome that so that we can BOTH help our son grow and succeed, and as result her and I have learned from his maturity and have become better people.

Thanks Ryno, and to all of you…Cheers!!