Mom, You're Embarrassing Me!

You know when you have kids that one day they're going to find you incredibly embarrassing. Even when they're itty-bitty and think that you hung the moon, you know that the day will come when that will all change. I knew it would happen with Mason, I just didn't think it would happen when he was six! But lately, Mom's not quite as cool as she used to be.

It was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago when we were coming home from soccer practice. Mason suddenly piped up from the backseat, "Mom, I don't like it when you talk to the other moms at soccer practice." I asked him why. "Because I just don't. It makes me feel weird. You're too loud when you say 'hey' and it makes me kind of feel like I hate you." Ouch. So I asked him what he thought I should be doing. "Nothing. You should just sit there and watch me and not talk to anybody." I told him that just wasn't going to happen. I tried to explain that I get precious little time to talk to other moms, and like it or not, I'll be taking every opportunity I get to have a real conversation. He wasn't thrilled with that, but he didn't say anything more.

Until this Saturday. We were at the soccer fields and this time it was a game. I was cheering for his team- nothing out of the ordinary, just "Go Michael! Good job, Robert," etc. But then I get, "Mom, I don't like it when you cheer." Dang, man, slap a muzzle on me and sit me in the corner why don't you! I had to fight the childish urge to cheer for everyone else, but stay quiet as a mouse when he was on the field- since it's embarrassing and all. (Though I admit to chilidishly responding, "Well, I don't like it when you do cartwheels on the field!) I kept cheering, but only when they did something really great like score a goal. Now, I did jump out of my chair and yell, "YES!!!! Go Mason!!!" when he scored a goal, but that was pure reflex.

The good thing is, even though we're in the beginning stages of finding your parents utterly humiliating, we're still only at the beginning. He still loves us for the most part. He came off the field after scoring two awesome goals and hugged me and sat in my lap. So thankfully, we've got a ways to go before he refuses to acknowledge me in public. But even when he gets to that stage, I'll still be there, cheering him on- even if it embarrasses him to death!