"Mom, I think your super power is that you know everything, " my son told me once. "I can also predict the future," I wanted to tell him. These, compounded by love, are super powers God specifically blessed mothers with. And I've proven this time and again. Sometimes, though, things fall into the cracks and all you can say is, "I knew this was gonna happen."
A couple of weeks ago, my son got a warning for not submitting his PE assignment. When I asked for the reason, he defensively said, "It's just PE, Mom."
"How do you think your PE teacher feels about that? And you like PE."
He then said in a small voice, "I didn't understand what I had to do."
"Why didn't you ask me or Auntie Ina about it?"
He looked at me with a hint of surprise.
"Just because I am no longer homeschooling you doesn't mean you can't ask for my help anymore."
"But I want to do it by myself ..."
"But if you don't know what to do, how will you do it by yourself? There is nothing wrong with asking. No shame in making sure you understand before you start working on something."
He reluctantly nodded. Such a proud soul (just like his mother).
Because of this little incident, I took out the weekly planner sheets my friend gave me as a gift and helped him get organized. We listed down his assignments and I instructed him to update the planner everytime the teachers gave new assignments.
On Wednesday, I knew he had nothing due for Thursday. I meant to remind him to do his Friday-due assignment on the drive to the drop-off point, but he caught me off-guard with ...
"Mom, what time did you get home last night?"
"About 1:30, I think."
"But you still wake me up and drop me off every morning. Thank you, Mom."
That was it. My heart melted and my brain turned to mush. I completely forgot to remind him to work on his assignment.
Thursday rolls in. When he got home, he immediately freshened up and started working on his assignment. I asked if he started on it last Wednesday. Apparently, he worked on another assignment ... due the following week. I looked at him in dismay.
"Did you not check the calendar? We put that together, so that you know which assignments to work on first."
My son gave me a blank look.
"You work on your assignments that will fall due first. Your RPT assignment is due next week, so yesterday what you should have worked on were the assignments due tomorrow. You have the weekend to work on the RPT assignment."
He finally understood.
I went inside my room to take my evening calls. A few minutes later, he comes in to brainstorm on his comic strip idea. Satisfied, he went back to the library. Barely five minutes passed when my son marched in with his laptop and books.
"I have calls. Do you need my help?"
"No, Mom. I just want to stay here with you." He silently worked, while I took my calls. When he was finished, he gave me the thumbs up and mouthed "I'm done!" He started shutting down his laptop when he stopped, "Oh, no! I have another assignment due tomorrow."
I muted my phone and said, "No. You only have one due tomorrow. I checked the calendar."
"I forgot to write it down. It's okay, Mom. I can handle it."
And, for awhile, he was okay; until he started printing and got frustrated with the printer. He pulled out the stuck paper, ignoring my hand signals to stop. Consequently, the printer's rollers couldn't recognize the paper anymore. It always registered as "Out of Paper". My sister jumped in to help and completed printing the rest of the pages.
After my call, I asked him what exactly he needed to do. He couldn't explain properly, so I asked him to read everything. Towards the end was the note
"No need to print. Just fill in directly on the slides or you can make your own slides."
As usual, my son didn't have the patience to read through to the very end.
I started to lecture him about reading the instructions properly and completely; and about not wasting paper. But, then, he looked forlorn and was starting to get agitated because of the late hour, repeatedly looking at the his watch helplessly. So, I switched from "Nagging Mom" to "Cheerleader Mom".
We ran through what he had to do, then I asked, "Can you do it on your own?'
"Yes, Mom. I've got this."
And he worked nonstop until about 2 am (Yes, 2 am!). After which, he started getting agitated once again. The truth is, he hasn't been very good at handling his frustration, and the fact that he lasted till 2 am was a MAJOR milestone. It was a proud mom moment, that I had to put on hold. First, I had to help him actually complete the homerun.
"Just two more slides and you're done. Target for 2:30."
When he flipped onto the last slide, he softly exclaimed, "Oh!" I glanced his way to find him smiling, "Look, Mom. It's Bicol!" I knew then God was watching over us and gave my son a little treat. Bicol is our province and is of particular interest for him.
"That's a good way to end, huh?"
"Yeah."
When he was finished, he hugged me, "Thanks, Mom".
"You did good tonight. I'm proud of you."
We survived our first "lamay" (all-nighter) and it definitely won't be the last. It warmed my heart, that it helped him to just work beside me; that he found comfort in our togetherness --- even though we were doing our own things. As he walked out of my room, I marveled at my son's drive to succeed in the school setting and his commitment to work independently. What just happened? It's as if this young man just snuck up on me. When did the little boy grow up? (Sigh!)
