A Message for a Happy Birthday

My son turns 12 today. I am finding this very hard to believe. I feel like he is still a little kid, a toddler. He very much is not a toddler.

Raising a pre teen can be both rewarding and frustrating. Things are no different in my world. I adore my son. He is my buddy. He is getting into sports more and more everyday. He loves football. He is a basketball fan. He enjoys playing baseball and has started to watch it from time to time. He is becoming, against my better wishes, a Michigan football fan. I know that life and I am trying to steer him towards other teams, which is kind of working. But hey, no better time to be a Michigan Wolverines football fan. I coach him in basketball, and while his listening skills still need to be better, he does things at practice lately where I see he is figuring stuff out on the court. I'm an assistant baseball coach, and his fear of the ball when hitting is all but gone. He may swing at too many pitches if I'm being honest. He is a super bright kid who may not push himself enough in school. He is inherently smart, but he doesn't apply himself all the time. He wants to get his work done so he can goof around with his buddies. I get it, but he is too smart to not push a little more in school. We have given him incentives to work hard, not a great parenting moment, but what are you going to do, and it seems to be working. I thought I caught him watching YouTube on his chromebook the other day, but he was studying. It was a wonderful surprise. And he got every question right on that quiz except for one. Studying did the trick. As much as I love him, we do argue. I feel like this is pretty commonplace for a dad and pre teen son. And our arguments are never over the top crazy. He doesn't want to make his bed or clean his room. I often have to remind him multiple times to do his homework. He pees all over the toilet seat. He doesn't really clean up after himself when he makes a mess. I think he plays too many videogames and doesn't work enough, for my taste, on his athletics. And we bicker like a married couple. But this is all very small in the big picture of things. I have to imagine a bunch of other parents my age with kids my son's age deal with the same stuff. And if that is all I have to gripe about when it comes to my son, I think that is okay. I'm not mad at that at all. I do give him a hard time, probably too hard at times, but it is all coming from a place of love.

I love this kid with every single inch of my heart. He is my first kid. He is who made me a dad. It is due to him that I am a stay at home dad, which is the greatest job a person could ever have. I lost weight and became a runner to keep up with him when I first started staying home with him. He was my introduction to my best bud. Without us being at home dads, we may have never met. That is all due to my son being the social kid that he is. I love watching him play football. He is becoming a better player every year, and the fact that I don't have to coach makes watching so much more rewarding. As I said up top, the kid is figuring things out on the basketball court and has no fear when batting in baseball. He takes multiple challenge courses, and he scores A's and B's. He has worked harder lately. He is a funny and fun kid to be around. He makes me want to be social. He pushes me to get out of my comfort zone in social situations. He is so good at chatting people up, and I envy that quality of my son. My son is the best kid there is on this planet. He may drive me nuts, but every time I think of this day, I smile. I'm also grateful and thankful for him. He started this whole parenting thing for me, and I couldn;t be happier.

Happy birthday bud. I love you so much and cannot wait to celebrate with you. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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