Don't Sleep With a Bubba by Susan Reinhardt

Author:Susan Reinhardt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2007-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

I’d do my best as a working mother, spending more quality time with my child instead of nagging at him all night and day. I cooked up a plan where I’d be the Rawest Mother of the Year. I’d buy us a couple of tickets for a Pro Basketball game to see the Charlotte Bobcats play the Chicago Bulls.

It would be one of those MasterCard TV moments for sure. Priceless. I would be the cool mom taking her son to a pro game. I scored the tickets, and there we were in the oxygen-depleted upper levels of the Charlotte Coliseum: my boy, wearing his extralarge Bobcats jersey and a size “Hefty Lard Ass” pants that sagged to his knees. It was just he and I, having a grand old time eating $7 hot dogs and drinking $5 Cokes.

The game between the Charlotte Bobcats and Chicago Bulls had gotten under way and I was pretending as if I knew all about sports and Pro Ball. A mom is always trying to impress her adolescent son, an impossible task. I leaned forward in my chair and shouted, “DEFENSE! Block those cocky, mean old Bulls. Come on now, Bobcats, you know you can’t give Scottie Pippen the ball. You gotta watch out for Rodman, too. He’ll sneak up and slam one in.”

My son said nothing but stared at me blankly. The Bulls scored, but the Bobcats ran the ball back down court and sank a 3-pointer. “That’s how to show those Bulls,” I yelled. “You boys can take on Pippin any day!”

My son gave me a puzzled look and a slight smile. The young man next to me, who had Down Syndrome and a vast knowledge of sports, could contain himself no longer.

He turned to me and poked my arm. “Scottie hasn’t played for the Bulls since the early 90s…and neither has Rodman.” He rattled stats faster than anyone on ESPN could ever begin doing. I was beyond impressed, but couldn’t stop laughing at how stupid I’d been about sports. The young man with Down Syndrome then started cheering and so did my child, which is a breakthrough for some of us moms with adolescent boys who seem hard to please at times.

Mothers of this age group often have it tough. Where once our sons would throw their arms around us—even in public—these ’tween years give them the hormones and strong wills to seek out their peers more often than their mommies.

This is how it should be. It’s the way of growing up and becoming independent.

I’d been feeling disconnected and wanted to somehow plug back into that direct line of communication with my child. That’s why I bought the tickets, and while I’d never been one to watch many sports events, other than tennis or the Olympics, my son had become obsessed with football and basketball. He knew all the names and stats.

He didn’t care that the seats were so high that the players appeared like nervous ants in orange.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.