Seniors!!

For anyone who doesn't know, My family and I live right next door to one of the largest retirement communities in the nation, The Villages. We have made our lives among them, the retirees. Life is a little different here and flows at a different pace. This story is not about them! This story is about another type of senior.

The High School Senior.

My son has finally reached that pinnacle in high school life and is graduating at the end of the school year.

Just a quick side note. I know you don't want to read about my kids anymore than I want to read about yours. So this is not about MY KID this is about high school kids and related topics. Like High School Senior's mothers.

As I ponder the next paragraph it occurs to me that I could write a rather large book on this subject so instead I'll try to hit the highlights.

If your son is a senior, your wife's only son, then you as a father begin to lose your former status. Her baby is "gettin there" and he may not be around for ten more years. When I get after my son now for anything Mother informs me that he is a good boy and perhaps I'm being a "bit too hard on the kid". Forgetting I guess, for awhile, that being a "bit too hard on the kid" may be a large part of why he is such a good boy. The young man, who is not an idiot, barely even bothers to talk to me now, and why should he?

I often wondered what happened along the way between a father and son so that a man's little boy could barely tolerate being around his father when he became an adult. I now have the answer fellas, Mothers. That's what happens. My father and I had and still maintain a pretty close relationship, but Mom isn't here to wrench it all up.

It seems to me that as my son grows slowly, ever so slowly, I mean very, very, slowly into manhood I am usually all the more proud. The boy screws up but that's why we the parents are here, but even these are small and really all he usually needs is just a little guidance to help him make his own decisions. Which he does and my chest swells with pride because, yes he has done well in several school activities I am also proud of, but when that young man uses his own mind it means that we have succeeded. Pride.

Now Mom sees things a tad little bit different. At least it seems that way to me. The more he uses his own mind the less he needs her's. Now don't get me wrong, when that boy comes up with something clever she's very proud. What I mean is he and several of his friends were talking about a coast to coast road trip after graduating. Well now, that kind of free thinking is just trouble. Mom said, in her defense, that she thought that would be fun, but her eyes said otherwise. She then spoke to some of the other mothers who pointed out that they all wanted to take a road trip and no one actually ever really did at least no one they knew. So the silent crisis is for now averted.

Graduation means moving on. There is the rub for Moms. They don't want any damn moving on when it comes to there children or rather, their little boys. The gap. They are apparently afraid of the gap. What gap?? The gap between grown up children and grandchildren. That gap is important, vitally so, without it no Mom would ever want to be Grand Mom.

Grandma, Granny, Grammy etc. are very scary words around our house right now but with a properly applied gap then those subjects will soften up. By the time our boy is ready to marry and perhaps have a family then maybe, hopefully Mom will be ready as well.

Until then we continue the inevitable march that every parent has made, ever. You kids will grow up, if you are lucky. If you are not then you may end up with a thirty year old nerd in the basement and a really pissed off Dad no one gives a damn about at all.

For men a sign of accomplishment, for many of us, the only thing we may ever do right or rather, mostly right.

For women a simple sign of age.

It won't be long, after all. The old folks next door look younger and younger every year.