The Luck of the Draw

My intended focus today was reminiscence as August 31st is my mother's birthday & today is the one year anniversary of her mother's passing. However, as I have settled in for the night & shared a moment with my son, my focus has been somewhat rerouted.

To know my Tate is to love him. It is entirely impossible to be angry at this child. He has the most jovial spirit even during the most trying & troublesome of times. He is 17 years old & has been known to get himself into some hairy situations. He likes to partake of the jive stick from time to time & got into a little trouble for it back in the fall of last year. Got himself the grace of deferred prosecution provided he completed 24 hours of community services, drug classes, stayed out of trouble & stayed in school during his one year probationary period which will be up December 5th of this year. He completed his community service & classes, stayed in school, & so far has stayed out of trouble....apparently until last night, anyway.

So I get home from work today around 5:30 & go through my routine of cooking, chicken cordon bleu was on tonight's menu, & sit down in front of the computer to waste valuable time on facebook. Tate & one of his friends came in & Tate say's "mama, I got handcuffed last night." My automatic response was "quit bullshitting me, son," as he is always trying to take advantage of my gullable nature. Well, it turns this wasn't the case this time & he had once again found himself in yet another hairy situation that could have very well gotten his probation revoked three months before it was up & put him in the slammer for 45 days to fight off the booty bandits (he is a pretty child).

I wish I could share this story as it was so hilariously relayed to me, however due to the minor illegalities I will refrain so as to not incriminate him or any of his bros. Luckily he incurred no charges this time, although I'm not quite sure how...the luck of the draw just worked to his advantage this go round.

The point of this story is he had been wanting to share this with me all day. & even though he stood the risk of me going postal on his ass, he felt like he had to tell me & he came clean. This tells me a lot about his character. It tells me that he trusts me. It tells me that he respects me. Most importantly it tells me that he has a conscience. It also tells me that as a parent I may not have failed quite as miserably as I thought I had. I can stand tall & be proud that I have raised a MAN. Maybe the luck of the draw sometimes works to my advantage, too, afterall :)