November 12, 2015
Raising Little Boys In To Little Men

I am a happy stay-at-home mom of two boys, and my Army husband's girlfriend. My 12 year old was to get paid twenty dollars to mow the yard and he did the task well. I took him to the store after he was finished to get the toy he had been wanting (which happened to cost twenty dollars).

When my husband came home, he told our son how nice the yard looked and pulled twenty dollars out of his wallet and started to hand it over. My son said "No, Dad, Mom already gave me the money by buying this toy." Then I said to my husband "Since our son was so honest, why don't we let him keep the other twenty?" But my husband said "No, he got what he earned, and the reward is having the pride of what he worked for."I started to argue my point, but then the "Dr. Laura voice" in my head went off and I said okay and let it go.

My son then came over to me and said "Mom, I didn't want that extra twenty anyway, because I didn't work for it. I'll mow the lawn NEXT week and then get the twenty after I've earned it."That's when I realized a growing boy needs a Dad like my husband and we moms need to stand down to let the transformation take place. While I don't like it that he's not my "baby" anymore, I'm ever so proud of the man he's becoming.

Thank you for being that voice in my head telling me to "shut up" and let Dad do his job!

Jenni

Posted by Staff at 10:59 AM