Parenting payoff

[CasterTroy]

My son (13) is a man of few words.

He's a quiet kid. Funny when he speaks, but doesn't have a lot to say most of the time. Well, not to adults anyway

We've always been close, but as he gets older he tends to keep to himself more and more.

Thats why this just kinda rocks

A few weeks ago I took him down to a pretty big ATV park (outback) 2.5 hrs away. It was his first adventure on his new dirtbike I got him for Christmas. It was a LONG day and I didn't think he really had a blast, because stupid me locked the keys in the trailer and had to spend an hour running to town to have the lock cut off and we ended up getting my buddy Will lunch while we were out, only to come back and find that he brought it and didn't need it ....plus my son got stuck a few times, but it wasn't a big deal (to me).

SO when my mom sends me this rough draft today where he had to write a poem about someone he appreciated (wrote it on her PC after school...she then sent it to me) it melted me.

Outback

That one day I asked
What we were doing that weekend
Do you remember that?

You told me you didn’t know yet
The next day you said
"We are going to Outback to ride."

I may not have acted excited
But I was
More excited than I have ever been

Riding at Outback
I felt like a deer running quickly
Through the woods

Like a bird
Flying through the air
Riding at Outback

You helped me up
When I fell over
I felt like all you cared about was me

That day was so fun
One of the best days of my life
Even though all those bad things happened

You lost the key
Will didn't want his sandwich
I got stuck

I still had fun
Thank you for the ride
I love you

~~~~Ben

I love being a dad