Thursday, March 4, 2010

Decision Making and the 14 year old

I need to say this.

I'm proud of my son.

Kaiden. The elder one. (By the way, Kaiden if you read this, I'm sorry if I'm embarrassing you in front of the whole internet).



Not that I'm not proud of my other boys.

What were their names again? Fred and Cecil? Peter and Paul? Tweedledum and Tweedledee?



But I digress. Back to being proud of Kaiden.

For the past 2 1/2 years Kaiden has played boy soldier at army cadets. Every Wednesday night and the occasional weekend or week on holiday, labour camp army exercise. Every boy's dream to get dirty, take part in testosterone filled activities and have a weekend away from parents.




And Kaiden has loved these things.

What he doesn't love is the fact that he was overlooked for promotion and the classes can be repetitive and BORING. (His emphasis, not mine).

Now I'm pleased to say that Kaiden has figured out what he wants to do when he leaves school (unlike me at that age!). He wants to be an Engineer Extraordinaire. Working with cars, planes or anything else that goes really fast.

I'm all for this. I often dream of him earning the big bucks and being ever so generous to his poor, tired mother who is so deserving of him showing his love in a monetary way. He can look after me into my ripe old age in a manner befitting the mother of the Engineer Extraordinaire.

Sorry, I digress. Again.

Now being the smart, money hungry kid that he is, he's figured that if he joins the Army, they will not only pay for his university degree, they will actually pay him to do it. See he has the brains for this.




And this is where things get tricky. He's not enjoying the army cadets these days and has considered quitting. But in a few years when he applies to the Army it won't look so good that he found army cadets BORING and gave them the flick.

As a sneaky little test of his maturity, I gave him the option to continue with the army cadets, or to hightail it out of there.

He chose to stay.

Long term gain, over immediate gratification. A means to an end. Not bad decision making skills there for a 14 year old.

Like I said - I'm proud.





(By the way, My Motown Experience - Part Two is coming soon. Stay tuned)


5 comments:

  1. My niece recently decided that she wants to either go to the Air Force academy or inlist in the airforce when she graduates from high school. She is 16, and a very typical air head. Love her, but it is the truth. I am so proud of her for making this deecision. it is a very grown up choice!

    Your son is darling.... and seems to be VERY gorwn up for 14!

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  2. I think some sort of 'military' exposure can actually do some real good for teenagers. It's helped Kaiden become more responsible, grounded and self sufficient.
    Hope it all goes well for your niece.

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  3. that also shows he has a lot of maturity for his age......well done Kaiden from me,

    Gill

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  4. What a responsible and mature young man you are raising.

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  5. Kaiden sounds awesome, I wish there were more teenagers like him around. You have clearly done a fantastic parenting job!

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