My oldest son turns 16 today.
Makes me feel old just thinking about it. Thankfully, I guess, he doesn't get his driver's license in Illinois until October.
Drew's like a lot of teenagers, there are a lot of things going on in his head that he doesn't share with his parents and other adults. He's hard to read sometimes, and that always makes you a little nervous as a parent. But I know he's a good kid. No, he's a great kid.
He showed me a little glimpse of that last Friday afternoon. It was a simple moment, but it said a lot to me as a parent, and particularly as a journalist.
I was sitting at my desk at the Times, cranking out pages for the Saturday edition. My cell phone rang, and it was Drew. (Which isn't unusual. He often calls to arrange plans to be away from the house ... again, as a lot of teenagers do.)
He just said, "Hey, Dad, did you hear that that Tim Russert guy died?"
I said, "Yeah, I did." We'd had our newsroom television on and the news had broken a few minutes earlier.
"That's really weird. I liked that guy," Drew said.
He's been following politics a lot this year (mostly because of Barack Obama), so, naturally, he'd seen a lot of Russert on TV.
I guess it struck me a little bit that any of the commentators had connected enough with him to register. I was glad that Russert had, because among all of the choices, I think he was the best.
What struck me more, I guess, is that my teenage son realized that, because I'm a journalist and because I follow politics ridiculously intensely, I'd want to hear the news as soon as possible. As sad as I was about the news, I found my son's gesture to be kind of sweet, and encouraging.
Thanks for letting me know, Drew. And happy birthday.
Makes me feel old just thinking about it. Thankfully, I guess, he doesn't get his driver's license in Illinois until October.
Drew's like a lot of teenagers, there are a lot of things going on in his head that he doesn't share with his parents and other adults. He's hard to read sometimes, and that always makes you a little nervous as a parent. But I know he's a good kid. No, he's a great kid.
He showed me a little glimpse of that last Friday afternoon. It was a simple moment, but it said a lot to me as a parent, and particularly as a journalist.
I was sitting at my desk at the Times, cranking out pages for the Saturday edition. My cell phone rang, and it was Drew. (Which isn't unusual. He often calls to arrange plans to be away from the house ... again, as a lot of teenagers do.)
He just said, "Hey, Dad, did you hear that that Tim Russert guy died?"
I said, "Yeah, I did." We'd had our newsroom television on and the news had broken a few minutes earlier.
"That's really weird. I liked that guy," Drew said.
He's been following politics a lot this year (mostly because of Barack Obama), so, naturally, he'd seen a lot of Russert on TV.
I guess it struck me a little bit that any of the commentators had connected enough with him to register. I was glad that Russert had, because among all of the choices, I think he was the best.
What struck me more, I guess, is that my teenage son realized that, because I'm a journalist and because I follow politics ridiculously intensely, I'd want to hear the news as soon as possible. As sad as I was about the news, I found my son's gesture to be kind of sweet, and encouraging.
Thanks for letting me know, Drew. And happy birthday.
