Saturday, September 15, 2007

The times, they are a'changin'


It's official. My baby is not a baby anymore. My 14-year-old son, Dominick, is a high school freshman. It happened in the blink of an eye. Just yesterday I was carefully assembling his backpack and pinning notes to his shirt. I was the snack mom, cubing his favorite colby-jack cheese to share with his classmates. My refrigerator was covered with assorted glitter-covered construction paper love notes professing "My mom is the best mom because...". I JUST removed the black silhouette of his Kindergarten head, made with the help of an overhead projector and an underpaid teacher's aide. I am grieving, folks.

Dominick tells me that EVERY DAY he is invited to "get high". HE IS ONLY 14, FOR GOD'S SAKE! The girls are getting on birth control. They are surreptitiously making appointments at the STD clinic--yes, they are! The boys are shaving in the morning, and boasting about "getting with" said girls between classes. It's a veritable hormone factory at that school, I tell you! The girls are downright cruel to one another, lifelong friendships forgotten as they compete for boys. And the boys? Too busy worrying about the other boys' sexual orientation and who has the biggest biceps. It's like 1982 on steroids.

This is what our kids with Williams Syndrome won't experience. I think Laura, my sweet, optimistic Laura, summed it up best:

When other mom's are bailing their kids out of jail, I will be home, snuggled on the couch with Ava watching Lifetime movies.

Enough said.

8 comments:

Nancy said...

I think high school would eat me alive these days. I already was called "Nancy the Nun" back in the 80s (explaining my huge rebellion and swing the opposite direction in college).

Dominick is obviously open with you, which means you have done everything correctly. He should have very little trouble navigating those waters. Congratulations on your high schooler.

Let me know when to fire up my margarita machine.

Julie said...

My daughter Alexis just started junior high. I have already gone through these years with one although they have polar opposite personalities. It is a nightmare to raise a teenager today. I was horrible as a teen so that helps me a little. I have told my kids if you are even thinking about doing it I did it. Hopefully that will put a little fear in them.

Your right about a Williams kid. When my best friend told her husband about Noah he said, "That kid will probably never give her a day of grief or disapoint her."

Tara said...

Man, reading your post makes me nervous for what it will be like by the time Payton gets in high school - but I love what Laura said! What a fantastic outlook! I agree with Nancy - Dominick seems to have shared it all with you - he sounds like a good kid. I hope his freshman year is wonderful.

Katie said...

Yeah.
i think back to high school and wonder if it does more harm than good these days...
I am impressed by Dominick's open-ness with you! I was never able to be that open with my parents.
And such wise words from Laura, it gives a happier perspective on things!

Kerry said...

SO good to see you!!! I have missed little Ava updates -- although she is not so little anymore!! :)

What a great outlook Laura has - -I think about that too, that Brady will go to the movies with me ;)

Awesome pics!

Noel said...

I feel your pain. As a mom of now 2 middle schoolers...my oldest will be 13 next month and it sends shivers down my neck to think about. I was commenting just yesterday..I am young..only 33..why does my children's age make me feel so darned old??( yeah..I was young when I started having kids). I looked at Lath yesterday and can see the small hairs forming on him upper lip and sigh...my baby is growing up and I'm not ready!!

Feeling your pain!
Noel

Amy said...

lol, just over lunch I was complaining about stupid baggy pants the "kids" wear and what idiots teenagers are these days. And when my friends talked about how "awful" is was going to be when their kids left the house, I said "wow, Avery may never leave...how lucky am i?"
XOXO
Amy

Lisa said...

What a cutie...he is still a big cutie and always your baby :)