A Dad's Horrifying Realization

I do not know when exactly that moment arrives when your son is no longer a boy and is now all man.  Not sure that we ever truly lose the little boy inside us, we just play with bigger toys.  For me, as a Dad, I realized about three years ago that I was at one of those points of no return with my son.  As he was headed into high school, the school held a pep rally just for the freshman in which the incoming freshman are taught the school song and the fight song along with some information about the first day of school.  Parents are encouraged to attend, so I attended the pep rally that night myself.  Just for the record I did not sit with my son, as he deemed this to be a major inconvenience for him. 

 

So, the pep rally starts, and they bring out the varsity cheerleaders to teach these impressionable freshman the school song.  And that's when it hits me:  Brent is now going to a school, for the first time in his life, where all the girls have boobs!  Yikes!  While I am sure this is quite a little thrill for a teenage boy, it is horrifying to his Dad.  And not necessarily for the reason(s) you might think.  I am not sure why I even had that thought, but it sure hit me like a ton of bricks.  I do not know what the "Mom perspective" would be to her (especially her oldest) son going to school with that in mind, but I know what the "Dad perspective" is.  This thought made me realize that my son was now "all in" on his stupid years.  Somehow, I was going to have to keep his mind full of common sense and focus in an era where he was going to now be using his "second brain" to do his thinking for him.  For now, this was the era where racing from one stop light to the next would now be considered a good idea without any thought to any negative consequences.  Yep, my son would now become bulletproof and realize that he knew more about life than his stuck in the mud Dad.  I know, just how many teenage boys have ever had that thought, right?

 

Well, I saw a Facebook post from one of my neighbors that the Lancer Launch was tonight, so another class of freshman will be taught the school song and fight song.  And another group of boys goes past that point of no return and officially enters their "stupid years."  Yet in spite of all that, my son has turned out well and for a teenage boy, has used a surprising amount of common sense.  He has made mistakes, but then again the only people who never make mistakes are the ones that do not try.  I am proud of the young man he has become.  Even though we have still have plenty of stupid years to deal with.  But my son is not the only to go through this phase (or is it the parents who go through a phase?) and yet they somehow turn out alright.  I just need to continue to bang some common sense and life's wisdom into him, pray for God to watch over my son, and leave it to the Good Lord to know that it will all turn out ok.  And it usually does.