Growing Up...

My boys are growing up.

Part of growing up is doing something stupid, and then your parents finding out. Yesterday, I found out that Austin had done something stupid. Imagine that, a seventeen-year-old-boy doing something stupid. What are the odds? I was pretty upset about his stupidity because it was something that I had told him not to do. He blatantly went against me. It didn't matter what Mom said, he did it anyway. We've all done it. I did it when I was a teenager. And, Mom & Dad always found out. Austin should have known that I'd find out. Mom knows everything.

His lack of better judgement ended up in a lecture from Joe & I both. Lord knows, we've done our share of stupid things. It also ended up prompting a conversation about his future. A conversation that I was wanting to have anyway. He graduates next year, and it's time to start thinking about what he's going to after graduation. It's time to have a plan, and put those plans in motion.

He's considering joining the military. I know a lot of mothers would not want to hear their teenage son say they were joining the service. I'm not one of those mothers. I'm very supportive of the idea, and I'm hoping that is the path that he will take.

As his mother, I know that it will be a great experience for him, a much needed experience to grow and learn. I know the cliche of 'he left a boy and came back a man' would really be true. I would stand by him with pride and tears in my eyes as he was sworn in.

Austin still has a little more than a year before he will make his final decision, but I'm hoping that the lesson he learned about stupidity will be one that he remembers, and that he will continue to consider the military.