Todd’s Two Cents – Dropping Off My Son

Well, it finally came, the day I was dreading, taking my youngest child to his new home and saying goodbye. He is nineteen and has a job in Colorado. He is ready, even if I’m not. Lots of changes ahead for both of us.

Probably my favorite part of the car ride was singing songs together. I had my phone hooked up to the car radio and my son would say a song, I would find it and we would sing along. He and I sang together a lot while I was growing up being his dad. Here is part of the play list we sang today in the car:

  • 1,2,3,4 by the Plain White Ts
  • A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman musical
  • Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
  • Fix You by Coldplay
  • Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots
  • American Pie by Don Mclean
  • Dynamite by Taio Cruz
  • Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars
  • Love Grows (where my Rosemary goes) by Edison Lighthouse
  • When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars
  • 1-800-273-8355 by Logic
  • Hey Jude by the Beatles

Since I was cueing up the songs, my son was driving, he’s a great driver. One of the many things, I’ve let go of. One of the things I did in the car (14 hour drive) was make a list of all the things we forgot. This made me smile as I realized we would have to communicate at least about these things.

Probably my favorite song about being a dad is Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle”. Can’t really sing it without crying a bit. As I was singing it recently I thought, the most bittersweet part of parenting is trying to tell your son something you know he needs to learn, but realizing you can’t as he has to learn it by himself.

Take care,

Todd