Proud Mama

The other day our son came home to say that his CAP commander had really gone to bat for him so that he could join the drill team for the regional competition. One of our friends, who is a senior member at the boys' CAP Squadron said that the commander had been really impressed with our son during the color guard competition.

It's kind of funny because it was one of those occasions where everything that could go wrong did. The eagle on the squadrons national flag had been broken and when they ordered a new one it ended up on back order. They were told it would be OK because Wing would have a set of flags there for any team that needed to use them. Well they did, but they didn't fit in the flag holders; Not ours, not there's. He felt awful his commander was very impressed with him through it all. Especially when our son handed the flag to one of the judges and asked her to hold it while he went and got our flag holders to use instead. I don't know exactly how he did it because our son said that the judge had said that she would hold it for him, so he let her. That's obviously not the whole picture or the commander wouldn't be so impressed.

He's always had a soft spot for our boys though. He thinks they can do little wrong. He doesn't coddle them though which is good. When our older son was the cadet commander he told me that the Col. really expected a lot more from him as a commander than he did when our son was just one of the officers. My reply was "To whom much is given . . ." My son said "I know, I know. Sometimes it's hard though."

Some times as a parent I see the places where the boys need work and am a little less quick to see the bright spots. It can be an awakening to see them through someone else's eyes. I'm kind of proud of them.