I Still Laugh Today

I am sitting back in my office, like I do every day, thinking about what a stinker my son was, growing up. One day in particular always makes me laugh so hard, my belly aches.

Our son was sent to private school from kindergarten on. He began at Berean Academy about forty-five minutes from home, back then. Later we moved to Wichita, so we could be closer to his swim club, because he was a competitive swimmer, and I was literally driving an hour each way every single day. During summer, I did it twice a day. He was a promising swimmer and was beginning his climb in the division, having ranked top four in most of his strokes, so we needed to be closer, and I needed to not live in my car.

We met, a now olympic swimmer and his family, who lived nearby in Kansas. His father, also the swimmer’s coach, spent a day coaching my young swimmer. In that day, we formed a nice acquaintance, and spent more time with the family later on. Our son formed an attachment to the young man and his dad, who were now now mentors. Then he decided he wanted to practice twice a day every day, like his mentor.

So how would we make that work for him? Well, we sold the farm. Not really a farm, it just sounds funny. We sold the house, bought one literally walking distance from his swim club and practice pool. Then we had to figure out how school was going to go. We were now over an hour from Berean. So the three of us made a family decision to take him out of Berean and change him to an online program. Fortunately, Liberty University had a school online and an actual school in Virginia, where he could continue his education, at the university level if he so desired. So, from fifth grade on through high school, he did his work completely online.

For those of you who are considering that for your children, I have nothing but great things to say about that decision, and the choice of school. For us, faith was important and the level of education offered just as much. Liberty did not disappoint in either. They had our son writing thesis papers from fifth grade on through to graduation. He wrote one every year. My husband I were not asked or required to write a thesis, until college. That is how good the schooling was. Our son, was smart as well, which brings me to the reason I laugh to today.

In his junior year, he was taking computer coding. He was taking C++ and python. He initially did not enjoy it much. There was a lot of programming, testing the program, reworking the coding if it didn’t work and on an on. This is not his forte. He liked to get it right the first time and be done. He didn’t much like having to make corrections on anything. Once he put his hands or mind on something, he would do the work, get it done, and not want to go back to it again. In some ways that was a good thing, in others, not so good. But that’s him.

He also gets bored, with the mundane and the rote. School in general was this way for him. He got bored with it, especially when he didn’t feel challenged.

Maybe that is the consequence of an intelligent mind.

With Liberty, he would have his entire years scheduled daily work at his fingertips. He could work at his own pace, and had no hard deadlines. He wanted to graduate early, so he would more times than not, do two days of work in each subject, each day. He finished his school year in half the time and was free to enjoy his break until the following August. That takes a lot of hard work, and he did it, but sometimes, he still, just got lazy.

One particular time, he was in a lazy period, and not in love with language arts. He is not a writer. He is good at it, don’t get me wrong, but he hates it. He would rather shove nails under his fingernails.

I checked his grades and progress in all his classes every day. It was my responsibility to make sure he got a great education and stayed on task. His dad and I would often help him when he was stuck on something, he wasn’t getting. Math was all my husband, and I took the language arts, foreign languages and science, so whenever he wasn’t getting something, we’d help him understand the work and let him at it.

So, this one week, he was being a bit lazy and aggravated. He was a little still adhering to his two assignments a day in each subject, and I was looking to sew where his progress was. We pulled up each class schedule assignments and grades, and went over a strategy for getting back on track. We were in the middle of him pulling up each class, and got to english.

I am not sure what I was doing in addition to looking over grades, but I must have been moving around, getting coffee or something, and I walked away a second. I came back and we continued. Everything looked good.

Then I got a text message from Liberty, notifying me that my son, had not turned in any assignments for several days in a couple of his classes. Language arts was one and the other was his coding class. I was confused. Everything looked up to date, and his grades were impeccable, as usual. It had to be a mistake on the school’s part.

I asked my son to pull up his courses, we looked over both and sure enough, he was on track. Nothing amiss.

He got up to use the restroom, and as I waited, I went to look at another class, and saw that he was fine in all others, as well. I didn’t get it. I was about to go back into the computer course or language arts course, as he came out and said he would do it. I got up to let the dog out, and he pulled one up for me. Something felt off. I always would get a feeling whenever our son was up to something and I was getting that full force, just then. The class scheduled assignments looked fine, and I told him I didn’t understand why the school was saying, what they did. He just shrugged. I asked him to refresh the screen in case there was a glitch, and that’s when I saw the reality.

He was not where I thought he was work wise. Okay, mom’s confused, so I ask him to pull up the other course he supposedly had not turned in work for, and the same thing. We went through every class, because now, I thought there was a serious glitch in the schools system, but no, all the other classes, were just right. I asked him to go back to English, while I let the dog back in, and as I turned my back, I saw him do something that looked a little strange. Initially, I didn’t think anything of it, but now all his work was turned in and up to date (his pace’s up to date, remember he worked ahead).

Now I was, curious. I asked him to refresh the screen and he gave me a little flack. I told him to do it, he did, and it was back to assignments missing. A week's worth of nothing being turned in. That’s when the hairs on my arms stood up, and ask him what he had done when he loaded it the time before. We went round and round with him acting all innocent, and I told him I was getting that feeling, he was not being truthful. He knew, I was not going to let it go. He also knew, that every time I got that feeling, I knew he was being deceitful.

I had told him that when he was born, I prayed all the time, that I would be alerted if he was ever lying or in trouble. I was granted that prayer. I always knew. He never believed that until this day.

Knowing that, he still tried to convince me, and I warned him. If he would not come clean, there would be far more severe consequences, if I had to uncover it on my own. He would be punished, but far less if, he confessed. This was the only opportunity I would give him to lighten his sentence.

He thought about it and decided to cut his loses. I am far more stubborn than him, and I had a job to do, to raise a strong-willed boy into manhood.

He showed me instead of telling me. He did something on the laptop, and the classes were all caught up again, as before. Then he refreshed the screen, and it went back. What? What the hell, just happened?

He told me he could manipulate what was on the screen, with a simple command. He showed me again, and I got up. I told him not to go anywhere, as I went up to my room. I went into the master bath, and laughed my rear end off.

I should have been fuming mad, but it was so freaking brilliant, that I couldn’t do anything but laugh.

Here I was, with a kid, that always got great grades. He had a 3.4 GPA, and he was a little computer genius. He was behind on assignments and yet knew his business well enough to do something like that. Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!

If he could harness his evil powers for good, he would be a superhero (insert laugh here).

I composed myself, walked back down to where I had left the wizard, and I looked at him and cracked up again. He looked confused, and I just had to tell him how crazy, genius that was. He laughed with me, probably wondering why I wasn’t gutting his room at that moment. We settled down and I informed him that he was going to have a big punishment for his villainy. Yes, I punished him. Well.

Then we made a game plan to get his work submitted. It was going to be a lot of catching up. I told him he would not be permitted to go to practice until he got every piece submitted and caught up. He did not like that, one bit. But accepted his fate.

He got to it. Worked hard for the next couple days and turned in all his work. He worked day and night to do it quickly. I made sure to tell him it had to be quality work, or I’d make him redo it all. I always made him correct his work. I didn’t need him to get a perfect grade, but I did need him to do his best. Since the school permitted him to make corrections and improve his grades on most assignments, I made sure he did. A better grade was always best, an opportunity to better them, should always be used, and correcting work would teach him more than, leaving it alone.

I firmly believe that. I have yet to be proven wrong on that front. From that point forward, I would make sure he always refreshed the screen in front of my eyes, when we would go over his classes and grades. I was not giving my resident mastermind and Dr. Evil, anymore rope. He learned a lesson from that as well.

There are always consequences for duplicity. Always. I still laugh about it today, though.

He is my little techie, too. He knows computers inside and out, keeps mine running well and saving me from my own tech nightmares. He builds his own servers, dazzling me everyday with his knowledge. He does all of that just for fun.

#family #Parenting