My Awww. Moment

This weekend I, being a temporary single parent,  made it clear to my children that it was necessary to mom's sanity that they have other options of entertainment.  Jack and Emma completely understood, a miracle in itself.  They both made arrangements to hang out with their friends.  Saturday rolled around and Mark and I were left together for a couple of hours.  During this alone time we decided to take the dog for her evening walk.

I love those alone moments with my kids.  As any mother of more than 2 can tell you, they are few and far between, which makes them all the more precious. At that moment that child becomes the sole focus of my attention.  I feel as though I can get a sense of the person they are becoming.  I love that!   I don't feel rushed and we have time just to enjoy being together.  This particular evening Mark and I took the time to discuss High School.  A topic which can be highly sensitive at times.

Mark started a new semester 2 weeks ago.  I am still trying to learn the names of the teachers and the time frame of his new schedule.  We spent some of the walk talking about the teachers, how they teach, whether he likes them, what he is learning etc.  I had heard quite a bit  about P.E. mostly because his teacher is the Varsity Soccer Coach.  I had gotten a little information about his introduction to Architecture class and his Geography class.  What I hadn't heard much about was Algebra II, not much of a surprise since he claims to be "terrible" at Math.  A claim, I might add, that he cannot back up with his grades.

I started asking him about his Math teacher.  He gave me a description and said she was "about 50ish, maybe upper 50's".  Then he proceeded to regurgitate the facts as he could remember them.  About half way through his reenactment he said, "she started teaching right after she graduated in 1990."  This gave me pause,  to be upper 50's she must not have gone to college right after high school.   After further probing I determined that she did indeed go to college right after high school.  Hmm.  50ish my butt.

After a couple of quick calculations I said to Mark, "She can't be in her upper 50's she is only 3 or 4 years older than I am."  He looked at me and said, "No, that is not right."  I gave him the dates of my graduations, both high school and college, gave him my calculations.  He replied, "You graduated in 1989?  WoW, I didn't realize that.  That was a long time ago."    Thanks.

After a few minutes of quiet I said, "You don't think of me as old, do you?"   He looked at me and said, "No, Mom.  I don't." Aww..... He is my new favorite.