"Hey, Mom, follow me!"

Story by Heidi L.

Time really does fly, and while I wasn't looking, my 10-year-old son turned into me.

He is smart, but can be a bit of a know-it-all. He is inquisitive, but needs to learn that we can have secret head thoughts and they don't all have to come out. He is opinionated, but can very easily become argumentative and get into the obsessive weeds. 

Since March, when I was unwillingly thrust into being his only teacher, I've been trying to set a better example for him. I try to be flexible. I try to go with the flow. But, I can pretty much science anything to death.

​So, the other day, when my golden retriever, my son and I were on our routine Priest Point Park walk, we were on the usual course of me making sure all living things in constant motion did what I thought was best for the team. The dog needs to run off leash if we have any chance of her being less neurotic later on. And, I wanted to see the sunset. As we approached the first turn we normally take, my son was 10 feet in front of us talking to his best friend on my cell phone. He needed to go left. In my head I shouted, "Go left!" He went right. "Ok, right is fine. We will just go in reverse. Problem solved."

We came to the second turn. "Go right, go right," I thought. Nope, left. He stayed on the paved road. It was then I decided that this was a day I would take my own advice and not say all of my thoughts out loud. We continued left and when we got to the rest rooms, I was sure he would turn right into the woods. And then the dog could run. She's better than when I met her, but still not great on leash. There are zero benefits to a leashed walk. In the long run, it might actually be detrimental. He continued left on the paved road. "Now what?" I thought, maybe he will go right, we can cross East Bay Drive and head into the forest there. He went left. All the while still chatting with Lincoln.

The next area we entered was still familiar to me and I thought, "Maybe he'll stay left and go to the playground. He can be nearish to other children and Grace, the dog, can get her kid fix, too. Children love her." He went right. "Ok, all good, I think maybe this road to the left goes down to the beach, it will perfect. I will let the dog off leash there." He stayed right. "Now, seriously, where even are we at this point?"

​

All of a sudden, there was a large clearing. We were on a bluff. And we had arrived just in time to watch the sunset. I let Grace off leash and she ran with wild abandon. My son turned on his video and showed his friend the dog running in the sunset. It was exactly where we were supposed to be. 

​Since the day my son was born, my dad has approached him with the certain mindset and suggested I do the same: He's little. As long as he's happy, just follow him. Go where he wants to go. What else do you have to do? 

I have spent most of 10 years attempting to micromanage the outcomes, but there is not always a right answer. And, big or small, I do not always know what's best. I will try this again on our next walk but I will attempt to do it outside of the weeds. I imagine it will be much more pleasant.