You Do The Best You Can

You try to raise them right.

You teach them, cajole them, encourage them, reward them and praise them.

In the end, you have to let them make their own decisions and go their own way.

I told him to be good.

BE GOOD. I said.

If he's not being good, I said, you phone me and I'll tell him to smarten up.

So when we barely got to 9:30 this morning before the phone started ringing, I knew there was trouble.

BIG trouble.

What are you doing?! I said.

You're not being good!

But he wouldn't listen. Less than 24 hours after his hernia surgery he was getting itchy feet and had to go "gas up the car".

DAD! I said, Listen to Mom! You're not supposed to drive until tonight.

But nope.

Nothing I could say would dissuade him.

Not even when I threatened him with having to live with me in his old age and being deprived of his chief pleasures in life: coffee, mixed nuts and mystery novels.

Oh, well.

You do the best you can... you try to raise them right... you teach them, cajole them, encourage them, reward them and praise them... in the end...