Motorcycle Mama

I’m not ready for this and I feel an eye twitch coming on.

It’s our first summer with both kids having jobs. When our oldest got her first job, we established a 50-50 rule. Fifty percent of each paycheck would be saved for college, the other 50% was theirs to divide between spending, personal savings goals and charity.

On a recent sunny afternoon, our newly employed, just-turned-18-yr.-old son Joshua casually said, “Guess what I’m going to use my 50% for, mom?”

“What?” I asked, only partially listening.

“A motorcycle!”

“What?!” He had my full attention now. “Noooooo, Josh! You’re---you---you can’t… You’re only eighteen!” I sputtered.

He arched a brow.

“You haven’t been driving long enough.”

He raised his other brow.

“It’s too dangerous.” I shook my head. “You could have an accident and die!”

“Mom,” he said calmly. “You’ve always said, if your number is up, it’s up. So if I’m meant to die in a motorcycle accident, then that’s the way it will be.”

AAAARRRRGHHH! Why…WHY do our children throw our own words back in our faces this way!

“All right. That does it. I’m telling!” I stormed out of the room in search of his father.

“Chris!” I said, finding him working on his laptop in the family room. “Do you know what your son just told me?”  And I informed him of Joshua’s completely scary proposal.

I should have known better.

I finished speaking and noticed an eerie light glowing behind his green eyes. Turning back to his laptop, his fingers flew over the keyboard for a moment. Then without a word, he picked up the computer and went to find Josh, me trailing in his wake.

“Hey buddy?”

“Yeah, dad?”

“Mom just told me what you want to do.” Chris sat the laptop down in front of Josh. “I just found this motorcycle safety class we can take together next month.”

“What?!” I shrieked over Joshua’s “Cool!”

“You’re helping him?”

What is it about boys and motorcycles? Chris didn’t even have the grace to look sheepish! Within days they’d both purchased helmets, gloves and Josh bought some sort of armored motorcycle jacket to wear.

Here is Chris (not Josh!) wearing his helmet in order to get used to it while they watched T.V. together. Ugh!

A couple of weekends ago, they finished the intense safety course. Enduring 90 to 100-degree temps wearing full regalia, they put in twenty-four hours of skills training and testing plus an hour-long written exam requiring a minimum score of 80% to pass.

I must confess, I was proud when I learned that with each phase of training, people dropped or got knocked out, but both my boys made it through. (There was even a guy who’d been riding motorcycles for over 30 years who failed the course!)

But now…NOW they’ve each obtained their official motorcycle licenses, and Josh is using his free time everyday to scour the web for used motorcycles.

Yesterday, I observed him as he sat hunched over the laptop. “So Josh, do you think you could give the same passion and intensity to--”

“Nope!” He answered without looking up from the screen.

“How did you know what I was gonna say?”

“Because I know you, mom!”

“Well, I’m just thinking if you gave that same intensity to your homework—”

“Mooooom!”

 “Gee, it’s only college. Your future.  Your life. Nothing compared to a motorcycle.” I grumbled.

“Yup.” He grinned, still not looking at me.

Brat.

I definitely feel an eye twitch coming on.




Motorcycle Image by: Time_Anchor