A Letter to Our Oldest Son

Yesterday our son came home from his friend's house across the street and was clearly upset about something. The short version of the story is that he had used his Nintendo DS "for 30 seconds" while waiting for another friend to come out. His friend said that he was "obsessed" and ultimately decided to go inside. There are, of course, other details that he wanted me to consider, but in my mind that is what it boiled down to. I told him that she was right and he had been rude.

In a bit of a pre-teen huff (meaning, as he tried to leave the room and escape downstairs), he said, "(You were)... the one person I thought would back me up!"

~ ~ ~ ~

Dear Oldest,

I want to tell you thank you for being part of my life; you and your siblings are what make me mom. It is with a mother's love that I write this note to you.


You want me to support and accept you no matter what. 

I want you to know that I love you more than anyone around. I want nothing more for you than to see you succeed in everything you try and aspire to achieve in life. 

As your mom, I have been given one of the highest commissions possible: To help mentor and mold you into the wonderful, kind, loving, God-fearing man you have the potential to one day become. One of the best ways I know to do that is to be there for you. "Being there for you" does not mean supporting you 100% of the time. Instead it means offering you my love at all times, backing you up 100% when you've done the right thing (and perhaps been slammed because of it!), and telling you the truth when you've acted poorly. You can count on me for all of those things. 

You can count on me to be your mom now, while you're growing, learning, and, let's be honest, still in the house we all share as a family. 

When you are a growin-up, as you used to say, you can still count on me for all those things, but also the best type of friend. I hope that you one day view my honesty as mom as the type of honesty one gets from the best type of friend.

I love my time with you all. I look forward to each and every day. 

Love,  

Mom

I have linked this blog post to Raising Home Makers and the Women Living Well Blog for the Wednesday Link Up.
Growing Godly Men