Shortly after my son turned 18 and finished school, I noticed he was starting to pull away from me - he didn't want to eat meals at the table with his father and I, he never watched movies on TV with us anymore, and pretty much the only time he spoke to us was when he wanted a lift to a friend's house, or home from the pub after a hard night drinking. As a self-described caring mother, it broke my heart to see my dear son turning his back on us family. I wanted- no, I needed to fix the situation and bring my baby boy back to his family. I suppose that, since he was my only son, I felt that without my son's love for his family, I would have failed as a mother. My chance to fix my precarious family life came one Friday night (actually, Saturday morning), when Damien called me, needing a lift home from the pub.
When Damien called around 2:30 that morning, I answered and offered to pick him up, knowing that my husband had a long day at work - people think it's easy being an accountant, but being a successful one is incredibly draining, I noticed. So I quickly threw that day's clothes on top of my pyjamas and left to meet Damien at the pub.
The instant I saw him, I knew it had been a big night for him - the hand holding his cigarette was not staying still, and his black collared shirt was sticky and shiny from spilling however many beers on himself. When he recognised the car, he stomped out his cigarette and shambled over to the car and collapsed into the front passenger's seat. "Thanks, mum," he said, almost sincerely. That's one thing that always impressed me about my son's drinking binges - no matter how drunk he got, somehow his speech was never terribly affected.
Just over halfway through the drive home, I'd had enough of the awkward silence between us in the tiny hatchback I drove, so I pulled over and, with the car's motor still running, blurted out my frustration, "You know what, Damien? Your father and I are more than a little tired of your attitude towards your family lately. Every day, you just hide in your room and sulk on the computer, you never eat meals with us, and the only time you speak to us is when you need help from us because of your selfish habits like drinking. I've tried leaving you alone, I've tried being understanding and patient, so now I have no choice but to ask you directly - why are you so damn moody and antisocial to us?! If it's because you want to move out with your stupid friends, we've already been over this: you're too young to be by yourself, and if you keep acting like this, there's certainly no way your father and I will ever let you move out."
Damien was shocked at first (to be honest, so was I - I had barely ever raised my voice at him). Eventually, he regained his "cool drunk" composure and said that he just wanted to move out with Kyle and Jake, two friends from school who were thinking of renting an apartment downtown. Then a sly smile came over his face as he said "You know, I probably wouldn't want to leave so badly if I had a good reason to stay at home with you."
Completely clueless as to what that meant I asked him to elaborate on that. His answer astounded me.
Damien unzipped his jeans and pulled out his penis, which was quickly on its way to being fully erect. "Jeez Damien!" I shouted. "Put it away! You must be even more drunk than I thought."
"Well fine, I guess tomorrow I'll text Kyle and ask if that place is still available."
I know that many, many people will object to what I did next, but in my defence, those people can't possibly understand a bond between a woman and her only child; sometimes, a mother will do anything she can to keep her family together. To this day, I know that I did the right thing in that car.