Today’s blog contains a little bragging about my son. 🙂
My youngest son came home as a surprise, over the weekend. We were so thrilled to see him, and even though he comes and goes to be with friends, even those few moments of time with him are precious. We try to take that time to “just talk.”
One of the issues that continues to come up is the amount of kids who are using some pretty hard core drugs. Of course, Jeff and I want to check in with our son to make sure he is not a part of that scene. Since he likes to party, we know that he must be around it once in awhile. This is all for our own reassurance, of course. In fact, every so often, Jeff will say to both of the boys, “Thank you so much for not putting us through the hell that we see some families going through.” And we mean that from the bottom of our hearts.
This time, in our discussion, our son told us why he didn’t get into the drugs, while so many of his friends from high school did. He said that he remembered us talking with him as he was growing up, preparing he and his brother for the inevitable situation when he would be asked to participate in taking drugs. He said the message he heard in his head was that he had good, strong morals, and he was raised to be strong enough to say “no.” He did not need to bow to peer pressure.
Little does he know how much that meant to Jeff and me. Our kids don’t realize it, but Jeff and I chew over nearly every conversation we have with the kids, when they are not around. It’s probably part of parenting. But we have been discussing this since our son went back to school. It is so good to know that message got through to them. It is reassuring to know they listened to us and felt safe enough in their own skin to not try things that they knew would be bad for them.
Thank you, my boys, for making it easy to watch you grow into the men you are becoming.