My Son

I am very, very proud of my son today.

I'm usually proud of him. He's everything I could ask for in a child (as is my daughter, but this post is about my son), but today even more so.

A week or so ago Mrs_C and I were working and the kids were home on a day off school. My son had some friends over. He was also supervising his sister. (son 14, friends 14,15,16 - daughter 10)

When Mrs_C and I came home from work later we heard about how one of the kids had gotten into a disagreement with my son and had left. Nothing to note really.

Last night Mrs_C was talking to my daughter about the birds and the bees and the topic of my son and his friends came up.

We found out that the reason the other boy had left that day was because my son had told him to leave. He had told him to leave because the other boy had been crossing the line on the kind of comments about other girls (not my daughter) and a line of appropriateness in sexual talk.

My son had asked the friend to stop, had pointed out that his sister was present and that such talk was not appropriate. When his friend did not stop my son tossed his ass out of the house. He has not been back since.

I'm very proud. My son showed good character and personal strength.

There are several points in his life where my son has really shone with good character, the following are three that come to mind:

• In high school he stops people from picking on one girl that many are mean to (he doesn't fancy the girl. she's this kind of dippy girl that acts dippy and kind of flirty all the time and some of the boys are especially mean to her)
  
• when he was 10 or 11 he got into a brawl on the school bus with about half the bus over some extremely racist remarks that were being made. he told kids that were several years older than him to stop and backed it up. my son is one of the mellowest kids you'll ever meet. the last kid you'd find in a brawl. but he did.
  
• one time he was watching his sister - he was about 11, she was 7. Mrs_C had gone to work at about noon, and my dad was coming over to get them after a doctor's appointment. they were alone for a short while. it was winter. the carbon monoxide detector went off. my son grabbed his sister, and hauled her out the door even without shoes (we had discussed and practiced fire drills and what to do) - left her by the outside door of the garage and ran across the street in bare feet to to a neighbour's house where they were home - confirmed they were home, quickly told the lady the situation, and before she could stop him, ran back to get his sister and carried on his back her over to their house (still in his bare feet - in the snow -15C or so). there are adults that would not have handled things so well. we called the gas company to come sniff the house and it was OK. it turned out that Mrs_C had warmed up her car (just outside the attached garage) before leaving and that the wind direction was such that it blew the emissions into the garage and my kids had opened the inside door on the house and the carbon monoxide detector was right near the door to the garage.

My son is of good character.

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Sarek (Spock's father): "As I recall, I opposed your enlistment in Starfleet... It is possible that judgment was incorrect. Your associates are people of good character."

Spock: "They are my friends."