Someday They'll Appreciate the Mama-razzi in Me

Tonight on the way home from basketball practice my oldest gave me a little bit of insight into 14-year-old boy logic.  It's not quite as scary as it sounds.  Nothing traumatic or worrisome.  Nothing to do with S-E-X, thank God.  At this age, we'll leave those discussions to his dad, thank you very much.  Instead he told me why refuses to go sit with his friends whenever we happen to be around.

Let me explain.  He's in Freshman basketball.  His games are early.  Most of them are scheduled for 4:30 in the afternoon.  Most of the time we hurry home after his games.  However, there have been several instances when we've stuck around to watch the JV team play.  When we stay my boy stays pretty close to mom and dad.  Once he's conned us out of every last dollar for the concession stand and I figure we're no longer an absolute necessity, I try to encourage him to go sit with the other kids, especially if it's a home game.  He refuses. 

Now, I always thought it was because he a bit of an introvert and, by extension, a bit of a loner. Well, he disabused me of that notion tonight.  The real reason he doesn't go sit with his friends?  Because he's afraid I'll break out the camera and start acting the paparazzi.  And that, friends, would apparently be beyond embarrassing.

Of course, I immediately said I would do no such thing.  The minute the words left my mouth we knew them for the lie they were.  So, with my very next breath, I had to admit I would absolutely, 100%, turn into the mama-razzi if I were to spot him sitting with a group of friends in the bleachers at some basketball game.  I tried to explain the importance of these pictures, the memories they would someday trigger. I told him I regret not having more pictures of the friends I grew up with and grew apart from.

I'm not sure my explanation for my mama-razzi behavior made a difference.  In fact, I'm convinced it didn't.  I'll just have to keep working on him, encouraging him to socialize whenever the opportunity presents itself.  If he doesn't, I'll have no choice but to content myself with sports pictures.  I just really hope as these last four years disappear into memory that they'll have some future permanence in photographs.