myspecialboy.com

My boy is 12, almost 12 1/2 and today, for the first time, he stayed home alone. You see, he’s supposed to be at camp, but was home sick with a stomach bug yesterday and decided he wasn’t 100% okay to return so he wanted to stay home again. Which is fine. Totally fine, except that now this marks day 2 of mommy needing to get stuff done, and not being able to.

My husband was able to be home with him through the morning, but then needed to head out. I needed to be out up until about a half hour later than that. A pickle. A conundrum. What to do?

He offered it himself: I can stay home.

Me: You sure bud?

Him: Yep

Me: Okay, well you’ll have your phone and you can text or call me if you need anything and I will be home soon.

Him: Okay.

And just like that, he did it.

And just now he said to me, “Finally I can stop being a weinie”

But there’s no cowardice in admitting that you are not ready for something. There is nothing to be ashamed about to know yourself well enough that you know you are not there yet. For a kid who has a hard time expressing himself, he made it crystal clear that, up until now, he had no interest in being home alone. And, even though that may have been inconvenient at times, it was necessary.

Now, how to get him not be plugged into more than one device at a time while we’re away….hmmmm….