Okay, so we all want to raise our kids to become loving, compassionate, generous of spirit, kind, caring self-sufficient people, right? At least that's the kind of adults I want my children to be. Well, I guess I forgot to put self-sufficent on the list when I got to my youngest child! Yikes!! My nineteen old "baby" seems to be just that sometimes---a baby! In the course of 24 hours he has let out a scream because there was a moth in his room--a moth!!!! ( From the decibel level of that scream,I swear, I thought he'd cut off a finger),he has come to me because the cat puked in his room and apparently he didn't know how to clean it up---hunh!!---and he came in complaining that he had muddy shoes. What the F@$%&??? Now in all fairness, Ryan IS everything else on that list. I have tried to raise him in a way that he would be an ideal husband/partner one day. And I set the bar pretty damned high. He is a wonderful boyfriend to his girlfriend of 3 years, Shannon. He is loving and generous and extremely romantic. He even took culinary classes so he can cook for her every weekend when he visits her at UCBerkeley. He wants her to have home-cooked meals instead of all that cafeteria junk. He buys her flowers on a regular basis. He puts a lot of thought into the gifts he gives her. He even eats fruit and vegetables when he's with her---no small feat for a guy who had never tasted broccoli or eaten a banana in his entire life!
On top of all that, he's worked extremely hard at the junior college for the last 2 years to stay on the deans' honors list so he could be accepted at San Francisco State University this coming fall. (yeeha!!--he just got his acceptance letter).
But he's afraid of moths, and cat puke grosses him out and he stills steps in mud.
One the one hand, it all strikes me as totally silly. On the other, it's just part of what makes him so endearingly charming. And maybe the whole school experience will help with the self-sufficiency.
Hmmmmmm. Maybe he IS all those things on the list. Whaddya know?!
And did I mention cute?
