There Comes A Time

There is a moment, as inevitable as it is grave, that every father dreads. It signals the beginning of the end as surely as the first gray hair or hand tremble. This moment is a life-changing event. It's the time the father realizes that his son can beat him at something.

We fathers cherish our superiority over the young. We love knowing that through size or wisdom or cleverness we can best our children in just about anything. And then one day, usually without warning,everything changes. The rug is pulled out from under us and in a moment we are no longer number one. We retreat to our caves, tail between our legs and licking wounds, and look behind us to see our child dancing in victory.

Well, my time came this past weekend. I was playing Super Mario Galaxy with Zach. He often lets (makes) me play during the hard parts because I am (was) better at these kinds of things than he. Well, there was one particularly challenging level that really had me frustrated. Zach was badgering me with phrases like "C'mon Dad, didn't you SEE that? You have to go THAT way!". This eventually got to me and I handed him the controller and said "Zach, it's VERY hard, if you think you can do better, YOU try".

Well, by now you can probably see to the end of this story. He completed the challenge, first try, and invented a new technique while he was doing so that completely rendered the most challenging gimmick of the level inert.

The look on his face was a mixture of glory and pity. And, I think, there was a realization that this was just the beginning of his long climb to superiority. And though this life event was a bit distressing to me, I am also proud of my little guy. He's learning and challenging and thinking and innovating more and more all the time, and this makes me happy, because I know he'll be successful in this very difficult world.