"Thank you Dad"

As thrilling as it is crossing the finish line of a triathlon, it almost pales in comparison to your child singing tales of admiration to you as a parent. My almost 10 year old son has crossed a new threshold in how he expresses his admiration.

He bought a new video game yesterday, with his own money, but it wasn't all he expected and he had a very frustrating afternoon trying to play. I spent a long time with him on google last night looking for some tips that would help the game perform as he originally expected. Today, I exchanged that game for a new one that he like a lot better.

The words he said as I was helping him last night and gave him the new game today were so simple, however, the way he said them made their meaning deeper than almost anything he had told me before. The simple words were "Thank you Dad". They are words he has told me before but this time it was different. They were more genuine and sincere than almost anything that I had ever heard him say.

It was one of those conflicting moments as a parent. On the one hand you feel so proud of your child growing up and learning to express himself in such meaningful ways, while at the same time, realizing that he is getting older and not the little boy he used to be, even though in a small corner of your brain you wish he wouldn't get any older.