parental rite of passage

When I was in my 20s, I lived in fear of the day I would embarrass my child for no apparent reason.  It did finally happen the other day.

I dropped off the older boy at a band practice prior to his first public band concert.  As his mom and brother and I sat in the auditorium waiting for the concert to start, it occured to us that he wouldn't neccesarily know where to meet us, so da missus suggested I go back in and talk to him about it.

I went back to the room -- and it was silent.  All 40 pairs of eyes of the kids were listening to the teacher.  I couldn't get the boy's attention as he was pretending he didn't see me and feigning interest in the wall in front of him.

I started to call to him, but decided not to.  Finally, the teacher said, "Can I help you with something?" and I said, "No, that's okay." and left.

The second I left, the room broke out in hilarious laughter. Da boy was mortified. We explained later that it's a good thing I didn't say, "L, Honey, Daddy's got a clean pair of underpants for you if anything happens."

Instead of feeling horrible and full of self loathing as I had long-imagined I would, I felt kind of amused... even a bit pleased with myself.  I had gone through a rite of passage - it's like confirmation, or bar mitzah or something.  That's it...a parental bar mitzah. 

And...so today, I become a parent of a tween.

I couldn't be more proud....

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