My son the lawyer

We had an exciting weekend as our oldest son graduated from law school. We are so proud of him. He and his wife have 2 and 7/9 children, so you know they worked hard to get into law school and then finish. He has a position in a prestigious firm and they have just purchased a wonderful house. And they have a great dog which makes grandpa very happy as grandma (me) doesn't want a dog living in our house at this time.

I was going to write something about how great it is to have a lawyer in the family but that is so cliched. Since our children are all adults now, I have been thinking about our role as parents in shaping them into functional, self-reliant, and accomplished adults. The baby is 18 and headed to college, which isn't totally adult, but close enough for to reflect on our role in getting him launched into the world.

I never feel like I "taught" them enough or did enough to get them ready for the world. But there they are, living their own lives successfully. So the old guy and I must have done some things right. I know that my husband is an excellent role model for the modern father. The father who cooks, shops, hauls kids around, does laundry, changes diapers, helps with homework, all without saying 'why do I have to do this", or thinking "this isn't my job." And I can see that our oldest son has fully embraced his role as the total father. Certainly there are roles best left to mom: making things clean and nice, soothing hurt feelings and scraped knees, offering kind and gentle words of guidance when one of the lunkheads has really screwed up, giving birth and breastfeeding. But in our house, we pride ourselves on our interchangeability in parenting. We've got each others backs, I guess you could say. Sometimes one will say to the other, "I can't handle this anymore, please step in". And we do.

Maybe this evolved because I have always worked outside the home. I certainly can't say that I have always worked "inside" the home, but upon reflection, I (and we) have done a pretty darned good job of keeping all the balls in the air and having a good time doing it.

So here's to our family and all that we have done, and all that we will do. We are pretty darned awesome, and now we have a lawyer to cover our backs.

Way to go, Jake!