As the parents of teenagers in the FJ community will agree. There are days(months) when we wonder where we have gone wrong. We ask ourselves. how as our children get older, we get dumber. Such is the story of my son. As most second children will tell you, they never get as much attention, as many things, as much credit, or as much love as the first born. There is, and always will be, a sibling rivalry for attention(I am a first born and still hear I was the favorite).
With his sister safely returned to college at KU a week earlier, I gave #1 son one last chance at a round of golf before he went back to school. I had been told no to playing golf or going to the driving range all summer. So I had to sweeten the pot. On the way home from golf, we could finally finish up the last of the back to school clothes shopping(yes, school started today).
At the crack of 9 am, I coerced this teen from his summer slumber. I knew it would take a while to get him going for an 11am tee time. Being a typical teen, he has his own time clock which means he will be late for practices, games, dinner, school or anything else that did not have to do with friends/girls. As he was getting dressed an ready to go, this child who I swore wanted nothing to do with me began actually asking about the course we were going to play, course etiquette, which clothes he should wear and if he could drive the cart.
Encouraged with our conversations on the way, we got to the course to find that we would be virtually by ourselves the entire day. The next 4 hours are probably some of the most enjoyable time that I have spent with him in years. He was transformed back into the lovable kid I always see. We talked about everything from school, girls, future plans, and yes, golf. Funny to think that, for that time, I suddenly got smarter in his eyes. To bring this long story to a glorious end, we had a fabulous time. We played some great golf. He played better than I had ever seen him play and I had my best score in a couple of years, no stress, no arguments and just the 2 of us enjoying a beautiful day. When we got home, my wife asked us how the game went...to my astonishment...he said that this was his best last day of summer, ever. Maybe he is growing up.