My 15 year old son is only 1 inch away from being as tall as me. It’s a strange feeling for me to see him looking straight into my eyes. His feet are as big as mine. His hands are as big as mine. And the little boy has grown into a young man.
For many years I maintained a family website where I posted pictures of my kids from birth till now so my family could see pictures from the important events in our lives. But if your family is like mine, then you know what happened when Facebook came along. Facebook became where I posted all the pictures of my kids, and looking at the picture galleries now allows me to see the progression of my kids growing up. It’s quite amazing to me because you don’t see the progression of your kids growing up every day. But when I look back and see what my kids looked like last year, and 3 years ago, and 5 years ago… it’s amazing.
I posted a picture on Facebook of me and my 15 year old son the other day and I got an interesting comment from an old friend of mine. She said “Wow, that gives me a flashback to 25 years ago…he is you made over!”
I paused for a minute because it didn’t make sense to me. So I dug out a picture of me when I was 15 and to my surprise, there was my son. As lanky as I was, with a mop of wavy hair and long arms. I never saw it till now.
He looks like me.
Then I started thinking about what I was going through back when I was 15. I thought about what I was thinking, feeling, and doing. I don’t remember everything obviously. Alot of time has passed, and a whole bunch of water has gone under that bridge. But I do remember some. And it caused me to think anew about my hopes and dreams for my kids.
I remember so much of the angst of being young. The feelings of inadequacy. The fears of not being accepted by my peers, my parents, and especially girls. My struggles to be good at things, and failing at some things I tried. I don’t envy my son, because being young is hard. Not hard in the way that being an adult with adult-sized responsibilities is hard, but it’s still hard. And he has to deal with so much more than I ever did at that age. No, I don’t envy him.
With that one comment from my friend, my perspective changed. For some reason, even though he was growing as tall as me, in my mind I still saw my son as that little boy who liked to play with legos and ride his bike. I almost missed it, because my son has slowly been turning into a man right in front of me.
And so now we begin a new chapter in life, me and him. Because I have bigger things to worry about now. I have so much more that I need to tell him, and show him, and teach him. And we have much more that we need to talk about. He does look like me, and I have a feeling that he also thinks and feels alot of the same things that I did. Lucky for him, I’ve already made a bunch of mistakes that he won’t have to. And lucky for me, because I have a hunch that he’ll be teaching me a thing or two as well.
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He does look just like you!! When I see him it reminds me of when we were kids…(good and bad times)
I love you! Renee
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I am experiencing all those feelings with my little Sisters here lately. One is twenty years old, the other sixteen. I helped raise those girls and now they’re practically women! They’ve got very good heads on their shoulders though, and I feel I might have a tiny part in that since I’m constantly warning them about the world!
Our Mother is in the hospital right now, she’s been there twice in the past two weeks. She is very sick, and my Sisters have been leaning on me for strength. Today my middle Sister looked at me and for the first time in years, I saw that scared little girl she used to be in her eyes. So vulnerable and unsure… I almost lost it!  I just hate that they have to go through this at such a young age, I sure didn’t have to worry about stuff like this. Loosing your parent has got to be a child’s worst nightmare.
But, Mom has raised three strong young women, and we can’t forget that. I may have to act very grown up in the weeks or months to come…. but I am my Mothers Daughter, and a child of God. Life isn’t always fair, but we were never promised it would be.
I’m glad I read this article tonight. Thanks for letting me vent Steve, I needed it!Â
-Anecia Price
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Just wait until ;you take your grandchild wiht you somewhere, and a person you haven’t seen in a few years knows it is your grandchild becuase he/she remembers your child as a boy. My grandson looks just like his dad. Doris Johnson
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There’s just something about that feeling when someone tells you you look like your daughter/son. I like the way you see things now. I never thought of it that way. My daughter is 27 now, and she is a successful career woman, wife and mother. She wears a lot of hats, and I admire her. We have side by side pictures on Facebook over the years. My Junior Picture against hers, my baby pictures and so on and so on. Then along came my grandson, and he looks like me. Same face, same smile same silliness and well to describe it a young soul. There’s an extreme bond because of it I believe. Anyway, I look forward to watching them all grow and we’ll still have those side by side pictures, but I’ll only see them up to a certain point in life. This was a very good reading, and very emotional. Thank you.