TheBanyanTree: how boys do mother's day

[Julie Anna Teague]

One might wish for a daughter from time to time to share girl things 
with, but, honestly, it's hard to beat teen boys for truly heart-felt 
displays of affection--once you get used to their ways.  You have to 
look a little harder for the diamonds is all.  For mother's day or 
birthdays, I always tell them: don't spend money on me--just make me 
something or do something for me.  Really.  Let's keep it real boys.  
Seth has no money and Andy has gas and car insurance and some college 
expenses to pay for.

So Seth (fifteen) washed a big sink full of pots and pans for me last 
night.  I had to strongly suggest that that would be the perfect 
mother's day gift, and he protested, but he did do it, and it was nice 
to wake up to an empty sink this morning.  He worked on a card, but 
that did not materialize.  Crafting is not his thing.

When rolled out to make coffee this morning, Andy (eighteen) had left 
me a lovely rose in a glass of water, and a note that said, "Happy 
Mother's Day....another gift upstairs."  It came, he said, from "the 
place you go when you decide to buy a rose at two in the morning."  
Then  he insisted that I walk up the stairs with my eyes closed.  At 
the top of the stairs was my gift: at two in the morning last night, 
which is when he came in from being out with friends, he had patched 
the big hole he had punched in the drywall during a fit of anger.  And 
in his room, another big hole with another patch.  (Eighteen has been a 
tough year for the kid who has never given me a moment's trouble up to 
this point ;)  I gave him a big hug.

Back in the kitchen, I had an empty Cabernet bottle on the counter, and 
the rose's glass looked a bit short, so I said, "Hey, I'll put the rose 
in the wine bottle.  That will look nice."  Seth came back with, "Or 
trashy.  We'll just have to see."  Good point.  Teen boys pretty much 
call it like they see it.  Another plus on mother's day or any day.  If 
you prepare to walk out of the house in something stupid, they will 
tell you.  If your last hair cut was less than attractive, they will 
not varnish the truth.

And that, my friends, is the way teen boys express love--dishes, roses, 
drywall patches, much humor and always many hugs.

Julie