Last week as we were getting ready to leave for school, Fat Dad told JJ he'd be going to school for the next 13 years so he better get used to it. On our way out the door, I corrected Fat Dad and said, actually it will be more like 17- 21 years depending on what you go to college for.
JJ said he wasn't going to go to college then. In the van, I explained to him that college is where you go to learn the skills to become whatever you want to be when you grow up. I gave some examples of doctors, lawyers, musicians, build rockets... Hold up... I can build rockets, mom???
Just like that, he was sold. I didn't even need my "yes, baby, you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up, college just helps you do it." line... I gave it too him anyways, but it wasn't necessary. Just the thought of building rockets was enough to make college a part of our life plan.
Fast forward to our ride home from school/work tonight. We are still a single car family so I clock in as my second job of taxi driver twice a day. I get paid in funny antics and an occasional backseat breakdown. The best part is that little bit of family time we get before we start our day, and again before we get home and split off into our own busyness.
Anyways, the conversation on tonight's ride home was a classic! One I will cherish forever, and because I can blog about it, the memory will never fade or blur.
JJ... Dad, I'm going to go to college to learn what I'm going to be when I grow up.
Fat Dad... Oh yeah? What are you going to be when you grow up???
JJ... I'm going to go to college to be a ninja : )
Fat Dad... A ninja, huh? What do you need to learn to be a ninja?
JJ... I'm going to have to get a master... he's going to look like Master Splinter, but with a human face, not a rat face : )
Yep, that's my boy! I fought back giggles the whole time : ) I love listening to my boys talk about life, and it makes my heart overflow that they are building a bond that will only get better with time. A bond that one day, when the time comes to really talk about what he wants to be when he grows up, he will know he can tell his dad anything because he has listened to and supported everything along the way.
I read somewhere that one of the best things you can do for your son is nurture and support their relationship with their father because someday that's the only way you will know what's going on in his life. JJ is a total mama's boy... now, but I know there will be a time in his life where it will be his dad he turns to for manly advice that I just can't offer or relate to. I may think that mom always knows best, but even I can admit that someday, I might not.
I will definitely be reminding him of this life goal when he is graduating from college for whatever it is he decides to be when he grows up. It's so refreshing to see that the sky is the limit in his eyes, and I hope that light never goes out. And if when the time comes, he still wants to be ninja when he grows up, then we will find the best ninja college out there. I just wonder what extra curricular we should get into to look good on his application : )
