Mother Nature's Son

I'm fortunate to have been raised in a loving, stable household - always a roof over my head, a chicken in the pot, and presents under the tree. And even though I'm no longer an adolescent, my old boss reminded me that "you're always someone's child" after I told him a story of seeing the press release of my first promotion to VP attached to my parents' fridge, report-card style.

But at some point, things change. The child becomes the parent, and the parent becomes the child. Parents can always worry that their kids are drinking (note to self....never mention to parents that you had two glasses of wine at home alone last night - mother now thinks I'm a lonely drunk), but truly at this point, you just hope that your folks don't fall and break a hip, or start having serious medical issues.

I have discovered that the transition from being parented by your folks to parenting your folks happens somewhere around age 30. Give or take a few years.

Innocuous changes begin to occur.

You hear a story about how your father somehow gets stuck on the roof while cleaning the gutters after he manages to knock over the ladder he used to climb up, and your disabled mother has to call their friends from down the street to come by, laugh at the man on the roof, and set up the ladder again.

You meet your parents at a restaurant for dinner, and they show up wearing shirts that could not clash any more if they were cymbals. The kaleidoscope effect of Dad's Hawaiian floral print walking next to mother's brightly-colored vertical stripes was astounding and inexplicable.

But somehow, glimpses of hope remain...

Like when your father manages to successfully transfer the 12 phone numbers in his cell phone book from one phone to another

Or when your mother finally remembers that their new HDTV has higher-quality versions of CBS 2, NBC 4, ABC 7, and FOX 5 at corresponding channels in the 700's.

I'm just waiting to hear about them someday getting locked out on the deck...