This round's on me!
SOME things in life are just priceless.
That moment when you first set eyes on your newborn child, their first day at school, their first dance trophy or goal.
But this week I was lucky enough to experience something truly magical - that moment when my 14-year-old son finally realised the meaning of hard graft.
He'd agreed to take on a paper round - nothing special he thought. Just a couple of hundred papers with advertising bits and pieces and, in his words, "I'll be in the money".
Come the first night he asked me to drive him to the starting street after me and his mum had dutifully separated and placed all the flyers in each paper.
In a show of paternal loyalty I set off with gusto showing him how to do it and quickly polished off three streets.
But after half an hour of teaching him the paper-fold technique came the moment of truth. "Right, you're own your own now son."
I stayed to watch for five or so minutes and in that time he grew up by as many years...the grim realisation in his eyes that you don't get something for nothing and that work can be hard had suddenly dawned.
How I laughed as I headed home in the car for a nice warm cuppa only for eldest boy to return almost two hours later exhausted and mentally scarred by the whole experience.
"Still", he said, "it will be worth it when I get my money at the end of the month".
Not once I've deducted my flyer filling fee and a percentage of the round it won't matey.
Life's hard when you're young isn't it.
Older/Newer
« Food for thought | Best things in small, fizzy packages. »
2 Comments
Leave a comment
Profile
Bad Dad - A look at life with small and teenage children
Do you have a canal near you?
I'm sure he'll soon learn how to 'deliver' quickly...
If only the same could be said of older relatives!
A friend of mine, Squatter Madras, has this incredibly lazy aunt (Corr). The thing is, her indolence isn't really down to a lack of care or self-worth. It's down to a character trait I can best describe as..........well..........stupidity.
The only time she really speeds up is when she's on drugs, or heat.
I hope this gives you more reason to be proud of your little ones.