Adventures in Mommy-hood

Something a bit...unsettling...happened to me the other day.

So I was in the basement, shopping for wind pants for my 12 year old son, AKD to wear during warm-ups at his chilly, wet soccer tournament last weekend (click here if you want to know why I was shopping in my own basement).  He wears size 12, so I was digging in the size 12 box, and there wasn't anything in there he could use, so I moved on to the size 14 box.

I found the perfect pair of pants--dark blue with white accents (leave it to mom to care more about color than comfort).  So I held them up to kind of gauge the length (do you do that, too, when you're shopping without your kids?), and the pants were...um...actually...a little too long for me.

You can see why it would be important for the warm-up pants
to be blue with white accents, yes?

Too long for me!  Is my baby, who grew in my belly, who came into the world at 20 1/2 inches, really almost taller than me?  How can this be?

Now, of course I've noticed that he's getting taller, and for quite a while now he's been just a few inches shorter than me***, but for some reason the pants just really brought that whole thing home for me.  My baby is getting older, becoming a young man, and there's not one thing I can do about it*. 

That's the goal, of course.  I never intended for my babies to stay babies.  It is the nature of parenthood to work ourselves out of a job**, and that's what will inevitably happen if we do our jobs well.  But knowing that this would happen doesn't make it any less surprising when it actually occurs.  I've gotten used to AKD being a boy, comfortable with him being a boy--he's been a boy his whole life.  And there have been signs of his maturing along the way, of course there have been, but this thing with the pants really threw me for a loop; it's a glaring signpost that cannot be ignored on AKD's road to adulthood.  Time to revise my inner concept of AKD.

As my babies grow, I need to grow, too.  I need to expand my view of them to include their increasing maturity and responsibility and, yes, even height.  I love those boys; I love these future men.

I'm sharing this post with the Parent 'Hood--come on over and join us!

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*OK, so yes, I know that there is a heck of a lot I can do to help or hinder AKD's development as he navigates the minefield of adolescence in the next few years.  I'm talking about the fact that there's not a whole lot I can do to keep him from physically growing into adulthood.  I know that it's more important than ever right now to be consistent in our discipline, constant in our love, and unceasing in our prayers for our young man.  We've been working his entire life to influence his character, show him how to be a man, a real, responsible, stand-up man.  And now is not the time to slack off, just because he's getting taller.

**And yes, I know our job as parents isn't done just because our kids grow up and become independent, contributing members of society, our roles will just change.  But it is our goal to raise these boys to be men, and that will be a major milestone for all of us.

***And, uh, AKD's appetite is insatiable these days, which has always in the past signaled the beginning of a growth spurt (remember those, nursing mommies?) so it won't been too much longer 'til he actually is taller than me.  I'll let you know.