Every weekday morning is a vortex of four people trying to wake up, shower, dress, eat and leave the house for work and school. I've been sick the last 6 days so I'm a little slower than usual but getting on the road by 7am is key to beating a bunch of traffic.
I was finishing up my dressing with about 10 minutes to go this morning and Sam came in the room with hair brush in hand asking that I help him fix his wildly crazy hair. He had showered after basketball practice the night before and went straight to bed. He has a lot of hair and is nearing his next scheduled haircut on Saturday. That stuff on his head was going all over the place. It actually looked cute to his father who thinks he looks adorable almost 99.9 percent of the time.
I was in a hurry and said, realizing their was no quick fix, "you look great the way it is" and went back to getting ready. He went back into the bathroom and I realized that this wasn't about what I thought about his hair, it was what he thought and how he felt he would be looked upon at school that day. I remembered when I was roughly his age that I was very worried about my hair and then in my 20's and 30's I was pretty comfortable and now I'm worried about it again, the lack of it that is.
I fortunately recognized my mistake of brushing off a serious issue to him, put down what I was doing and went into the bathroom where he was trying to brush out a giant bush of completely dry hair. I grabbed a towel, put it around his neck and shoulders and dropped his head towards the sink where we doused his head with a whole lot of water. With the head all wet again, we brushed it into a state where he liked what he saw and it wouldn't make him self conscience or uncomfortable all day. He has a girl friend now and stuff like this is only going to get more important.
He didn't complain when I said I wouldn't help him at first but I know he was happy that I took the time to find a solution with him. It's the little things you do to build that bond that will last forever, it's being at the game, watching the practice, helping with homework, honestly answering a tough question, watching a movie together, falling asleep and waking up down the hall from each other. He has likely forgotten all about this but I'm pretty sure that the 5 minute investment in time will payoff in spades for the next 30-40 years.
2 comments:
If this was on Facebook, I'd click the Like link ;).
Hey Beth, it's good to know people still read this thing. Send some snow down here if you get a chance.
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