Mine is exactly the same @wundayatta. Perhaps different because I’ve a son. Perhaps not. The bother got the best of me. Struggling to find a way to become a more interesting part of his life, I’ve intentionally developed a few odd behaviors, simply for the purpose of giving him new things to talk about with his friends. He can’t help but talk about it with his friends.
He now must suffer my singing throughout the house. I find the popular music for teens, then make a parody out of the chorus. Knowing absolutely nothing about pop music, I go to teenmusic.com for inspiration. Relying on the Weird Al formula, I count on mishap parody to get his attention. So the group Neo Trees becomes the Neolithic Bees, and their song Your Surrender becomes Your Soup Blender.
Hearing me screech the tune from the other room, he’ll often come out and ask what the hell I’m doing. “I heard a great new song on the radio… Your Soup Blender by the Neolithic Bees” You might imagine the odd looks I get when he sees me dancing around in a ridiculous hat. You might imagine the joy he gets by texting his friends what a lunatic his father is, and how I’ve gone nuts.
A few Justin Bieber parodies (whom he hates), and a few attempts at playing gangsta making fun of Eminem, and before you know it, he’s talking about his crazy father all the time. The best part is when he tells me what his friends respond, which gets them talking about their parents too.
Playing the fool has never been so much fun. I’ve even purchased a few pimp hats to casually walk around the house with, just to see the look on his face. He’s looking for stimulating and controversial subjects to discuss with his friends. I do my part to be a part of that. Imagine the shock picking him up from school wearing a purple velvet fedora jamming out with the windows down and Lil Wayne turned up loud. Maybe not the best to lay that on a daughter, I don’t know.
All I can say is that he hasn’t returned the “I love you” since he was in grade school. But this past year has changed his attitude towards me. For when the fools hat comes off, our times of real talk are more meaningful. And now when I say goodbye with “I love you”, I get one back.