Saturday, February 23, 2008

14

OK, I'm in a wheelchair. I think we've all got that.

OK, walking is difficult and when I have to do it, I'm afraid of falling.

OK, I thought THIS was my disability.

Wrong.

Yesterday after work we were on our way to Ottawa to visit Mike, Merrissa and baby Ruby in their new digs there. We stopped in Belleville to pick up Joseph, Mike's number one son, to bring him along for the ride. Joseph is 13 now and we've known him since he was about 6. It's been great watching him grow up, primarily because he's an awesome kid with a character that just won't quit.

After the preliminary hello's we set into the journey. Joesph called his dad on my cell to let him know that we were formally on our way and after he hung up I joked with him about his one word teenage answers to questions. I introduced him to a word, one that he's probably not learned in school ... 'sentence'. And then, he was off ...

In a two hour car ride we heard about:

one video game we've never heard of - and something about blue tooth that we didn't understand

three television programmes that were completely unknown to us but one involved a guy in a wheelchair who manages to be a crazed killer at the same time

four snowboarding terms that while we could put the syllables together we had no grasp of the meaning

Then Joseph decided to quiz us with questions from cell biology that he's learning in science - I'm afraid we were even stupider than he might have thought - I guessed that the word endoplasmic had something to do with the fuel they used on the Starship Enterpise and the sad thing was I wasn't kidding. Finally, God be praised, he tried a history question and Joe nailed that one. And for me, he tried a linguistic trick which I explained was a tautology and then introduced him to the 'prime tautology' and explained how one of the first was noted in the Bible. Finding this little fun, Joseph was back on other topics involving ...

two robot toys

three different gaming systems (who knew?)

how the WE (?) game works

So, here's what I got out of the trip. The wheelchair isn't the cause of my disability. Being over 14 is ... after Mike picked up Joseph I looked at Joe and asked. "How much of that did you understand?" Joe shook his head and said, "I need to lie down."

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL! I'd have to lie down too!

FridaWrites said...

LOL, it's Wii, not "We"! My kids have one. It's not just you, I can't keep up either.

moplans said...

lol. Seriously.
and I didn't even catch the We/Wii bit!

Shan said...

At playgroup one time a mother was boasting about her child's verbal skills, and describing all the methods she used to teach the little one to talk. Another mother, one who was there with her fourth child, not her first, said drily, "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Anonymous said...

Shan, oh that's funny. Yes, they learn soon enough without any help at all. ;)

What's interesting to me about your experience, Dave, is how well it illustrates the difference between the perception of adolescents and teens as being rather dull and uncommunicative and the reality that they have quite a bit going on in their heads -- but which they often don't bother to share because to be honest most adults don't think very much of it and will make judgmental comments to that effect and the kids know this very well. The fact that he was talkative with you might be because he's atypically garrulous, but I'm guessing that it's at least partly because he feels safe around you and that, even if you don't understand what he's talking about half the time, you're receptive to him as an intelligent being.

Anonymous said...

hee-hee ... welcome to our world! My kid is also generally rather reticent and we run into communication blips, but will at times burst into long monologues about fave topics of interest.

But don't worry -- for every topic he was talking about that you've never heard of, you have topics that he has never heard of.

andrea

Anonymous said...

I was going to say how amazing that he was talking to you guys at all. Teenagers often just grunt and then put in their earbuds (i almost said headphones but they rarely use those anymore) :)
I am currently parenting boy #3 who is 18 and boy #4 who is 16. #5 is a girl and only 11 (before factoring in the developmental delays).

Anonymous said...

Thank You for making me smile!

All 4 My Gals said...

Isn't that the truth. Maybe why I need a nap every day! I've just this year fallen from being a cool Mom in Darrah's eyes. I think I wrote my own eulogy when I tried to learn the Souljah boy dance on you tube w/her and her best friend in the room. ;)

Anonymous said...

Ah,so funny. God bless us all. We try.From p.t.

Anonymous said...

lol...as the mother of one of the same species you blogged about (same age and just happens to be a Joseph too), I SO relate to this. I am lucky that, occasionally my son will actually talk like that. I just nod alot, try to pay close attention, DON'T ask too many questions (even if you have no idea what they are talking about..they just will roll their eyes and clam up). BUT...I always listen as intensely as I can, I figure if I don't, I might miss one of the "big things" and he would never repeat it. Joseph is lucky to have you and Joe in his life. Safe people who already know how cool he really is, so he doesn't feel the need to prove it.

gracie1956 said...

thanks for the giggles

Unknown said...

I think that this is one of the areas where being autistic & a perpetual non-parent (as well as not being a teacher) have really worked in my favor, along with having online friends of all ages... I can't make sense of the idea of abilities or interests belonging to a particular age group, because I know too many examples of people that defy the stereotype.

If you tried having a LiveJournal, participating in some of the "communities" there and making some friends, you would find plenty of people that aren't restricted by age, too. Perhaps you could learn about Bluetooth & video games from some of the older ones. :)

Anonymous said...

Wii Nintendo... I love Nintendo. But, I got rid of that the first time it said "wiitard"... yep... "we-tard." Ugh...

Good for you for getting a teenager to talk to you! Quite an accomplishment!

Anonymous said...

Thats my boy dave, Just like his old man ... never shuts up. My mother told me thats because i have something important to say.

Ettina said...

My brother (age 10) is like that. His big interest is bionicles, although he's also into a variety of video games, shows and toys that I can't keep up with. Not that I'm that old, actually, I'm only 18.
My brother can b a bit odd about his interests on occasion. He likes to read aloud to his father before going to sleep, and one night he decided to read the product listings in his lego catalogue. Then after my father asked him to please pick something else, he chose the copyright notice.