One of my favourite things to do is imagine who my boys will grow up to be. Will they be bogans? Or hippies? Will they stay up late reading by torchlight like I did? Or will they ignore all books like their father? Will they be outdoorsy like him? Or
Emily Writes: What will your child become?
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I hope he becomes something noble, but then whatever he does I'll be proud of him. Photo / Getty
One boy had the loudest laugh I've ever heard. It sounded like a tin drum and I found myself smiling while I watched him. Eddie's laugh is so forceful, even at only a few months old. Would he be the child that made everyone laugh? Or would he laugh at others? I hoped not.
I thought about the type of parent I needed to be for him to help him freely become whatever he's meant to be. What qualities should he have? I wanted him to be kind. And maybe patient, since I'm not very and his father is very. But also not as shut down as his dad and so many other men can be. I want him to talk about his feelings. Feel he can be open, and maybe he can teach others to be open too.
Maybe he'll be a teacher. I hope he becomes something noble, but then whatever he does I'll be proud of him and - just then I realised the skateboard kids were staring at me. They'd formed a pack. They looked so wild and free! Oh, I'd like to be like that. I gazed longingly at them. Maybe I could ask them about their mothers? One of the boys yelled at me, breaking my daydream:
"Take a picture you creepy old lady!"
The moral of the story? It's probably to not spend 40 minutes watching teenage boys play in a park.