If You Give A Mom A Glass of Wine...

Read roughly in the vein of the book series, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

If you tell a nervous 8th grader that they will be required to take an online class in high school in order to graduate, not to worry about it, they will.
If you tell them they won't have to take the class freshman year, they will believe you.
When their class schedule comes out in August and they see they have that online class first hour, first semester, freshman year, they will flip out.
When the school gives them an iPad to use for classes, both you and him will assume the online class can be done on the newly issued iPad.
You will all be frustrated to learn that is not the case at all.

If you tell a freshman to be brave and go for things, he will.
He will come home one day and say, "I'm auditioning for the fall plays tomorrow after school."
You will be surprised and he will audition.
A few days later you will both be surprised when he has landed not one, but two parts in the play.
After the first play practice, the rehearsal schedule will change daily and so will all your routines for rides, homework, and dinner.

If you tell a freshman to be bold and take chances, he will.
He will come home one day and casually mention that homecoming is around the corner.
He will mention in passing that he needs clothes for homecoming and when you ask why, he will reply because I'm going to have a date and go to the dance.
You will be surprised.
He will be confident.
Soon he will come home from school and tell you her name and ask to go shopping.
You will be more surprised.
Then you will learn to tie a bow tie from memory.

Later he will tell you of his group of friends and you will be happy he has them.
Then you will hear of the plans for a group dinner party before the big dance.
You will be happy again.
Then you will wonder about pictures and realize you want some.
He will tell you the pictures will be posted on Facebook.
You will give in and set him up with his own account.
Later you will still be his mom and check out his profile.
You will be surprised to find most of his friends are girls.

Then you will take a break and sit for a little while, thinking about the long high school journey ahead of you.
You will double check your math and be certain that your time as a high school parent will last at least 13 years.
You will remember all the words years ago, be brave, be bold, when you learned you would be a parent.
You will sigh and wonder and dream and choke up a little and smile a lot.
You will laugh and be proud of your kids.

Then you will go looking for a cookie and a glass of wine...