Zach is flexing his ever growing desire for a little independence and a whole lot of freedom.  Luckily, he’s doing it in a way that keeps me smiling….otherwise Stan may clamp down hard!!


Thursday dawned like any other normal, summer day.  The kids slept ’til noon after being awake half of the night with Bella.  They came downstairs, made a wreck of the kitchen and went on their merry ways.  Zach took off to go hang out with his peeps.  Lucas and Jan went to the gym or back upstairs to waste away the day watching Netfliks…if memory serves me, they did both.  It was just a regular, normal day.

Excitement was added to the day as we reconvened for a homemade Sushi dinner, Zach announced that he and a friend were leaving for the midnight showing of “Batman.”  The words were no sooner out of his mouth when my emphatic “NO!” shot out of my mouth in return.  Stan came in on the tail end of the my “NO!” and asked what the hub-bub was about.  Zach stood toe to toe with Stan and told him he was going to the midnight movie, Stan’s reaction was quicker than mine with a “BULLLLLL—-Shit!”, his Jersey accent coming out in full force.  They went round and round a little bit with Stan finally calling an end to the whole business by saying “Well, looks like you aren’t going anywhere after dinner since you decided it was a good idea to argue with me,” and he walked out the back door onto the deck.  Zach turned to me and said “I wasn’t planning to go anywhere after dinner anyway.”  And I lost it…I just cracked up.  Stan turns around, sees me laughing with Zach and re-enters the conversation.  I guess he didn’t find it amusing that I would be laughing with Zach after he gave the final word on the situation…we probably shouldn’t do that.   But it was funny, Batman be damned.


In hindsight, I’m more than glad we didn’t let him go…not that it ever was a possibility.  There’s too much trouble that can happen after midnight with kids these age, not to mention the heart-breakingly sad story from Aurora, Colorado.  It’s just too scary to let kids this age have that much freedom.  


I know Zach is pushing more and more for some freedom.  He keeps telling me he’s almost 17.  
I counter with “Nope, not even close.  16 & a 1/2, at best.”  
He comes right back at me with “Boys are never 16.  16 is for girls.  Boys are just 17 for two years.”
HA!  I’m glad he has a sense of humor about keeping me on my toes and pushing for freedom ~ or maybe I should be glad I have a sense of humor dealing with the push-back.  There’s gonna come a time when the push for freedom is more intense.  I just hope I keep my sense of humor intact and that Zach keeps realizing that sometimes he probably shouldn’t do that.  He should back down and acquiesce…his time for freedom will come all too soon.  


And I will be sad when that time comes…for the love of my children.