My Best Drive Home Ever!

Tonight she called me and regaled me with stories. Tonight she warmed my heart. Tonight Stefanie was the perfect child.

I was getting into the car to go home when I felt the vibration in my pocket. Stef was calling from California. “I don’t need anything,” she said. She just wanted to talk.

If you’re a parent (if you’re a child as well) you understand no intergenerational relationship is totally smooth. Stef and I have gone without speaking. More frequently we’ve resorted to shouting. Not tonight. This conversation was everything I could hope for.

We talked about Roxie. We talked about Stef’s social life. We talked about work.

I’m not even sure how much I’ve revealed about my child’s professional life. She lives and works in Hollywood. She is California’s only resident with a sub-ten minute commute!

Stef works in the business as the assistant to the two principals of a production company big into reality.

She loves her bosses. She loves her job.

It’s funny. I pulled every string I could to try and help her get a job. For nearly a year nothing I did helped. Then out of the blue she got this job on her own!

“It would have been the job I wanted… if I knew it existed,” she once said.

No matter how much she tells me I always want to hear more. I’m not sure if she can understand my excitement over what must seem like the minutiae of her life. I’m excited because her job comes with salary, benefits, but more importantly a liberal education in career development.

She is learning what she’ll need to thrive and succeed.

I can guarantee beyond the shadow of a doubt we will scream at each other again. Would you expect any less? Helaine says Stef and I are too much alike.

Tonight she called and regaled me with stories. Tonight she warmed my heart. Tonight Stefanie was the perfect child.

It was my best drive home ever!

14 thoughts on “My Best Drive Home Ever!”

  1. How adorable!
    It is beautiful to have a child, after all. When they make you angry, you feel like the worst loser on earth. But when they make you happy, you would never trade that emotion for anything else on earth.

  2. As the parent of a young adult (mine is a male), I know exactly how you were feeling. I’ve learned to keep my distance and my opinions to myself and before too long, we’re having a wonderful conversation. There’s a wonderful “story” about kids are like dogs always there by your side and teenagers are like cats hiding away in corners ready to run when you try and get close. I learned from that!

  3. What a wonderful post! I know the feeling…there is nothing like it.. it keeps you smiling for a long time… I love when I get more then “yup” and “nope” from my daughters. Its priceless when they tell me of a story of their day or share in some of their fun with friends. It makes me feel so loved.

  4. I think we all have those moments good or bad when we think the aliens have come down and over taken our child’s body because they are acting so out of character or their norm. If it’s a good moment, enjoy every second. If it’s a bad one, well it goes with the territory of being a parent. We all have a little of both. The ones that have the “perfect child” just aren’t acknowedging the bad alien moments to the rest of us.

  5. aawsome…glad it made your day…Mom’s been watching your forecasts..I didn’t think she would ever leave “them”. btw, saw the billboard on 95 its great.

  6. Great story, Geoff. My daughters are 24 and 27. I was very fortunate to have a very short period of angst during their late teens. We are “friends” now and it’s great! For the first time since they were little kids, I went to the movies with my 24 year on Easter Sunday. It felt weird and great at the same time!

  7. I really like this story. My daughter and I no longer have arguements but sometimes I feel forgotten because she’s so busy with a husband and young children. Then she calls, we have a long, nice chat……….and the sun comes out.

  8. My favorite times with my mom are our phone conversations. They happen almost every day and alot of them are over an hour. The funny thing is we see each other all the time as we live in Hamden and Woodbridge. I hope you have many more commuting calls.

  9. I could feel how happy you were just reading this. I have a 13 year old daughter and a 15 year old son and right now my daughter
    and I seem to argue more than ever but I know this will pass (
    in about 7 years) I don’t really argue with my son but on days
    the days that I fight with my daughter it makes me sad but I
    realize she is a teen and they are moody and it will pass. I just
    hope you were using your bluetooth or whatever else it is called.

  10. Oh that just made me smile, I too could feel your joy. Wonderful to have, however briefly, that kind of relationship! My father and I screamed at each other most of our lives, but I was truly blessed by a wonderful last two years before he passed on. It was as if we were given that gift to make up for lost time, and during iot, he finally became ‘dad’. Thanks for the memory, Geoff! Fran.

  11. I love all of your posts to Geoff’s update on Stef. I know he had a warm, fuzzy feeling after she called. She missed him and that’s wonderful! It must be diffocult for the ‘rents when the child is so distant in California even with the great job that Geoff would have loved. Who would do our weather forecasts?

  12. Geoff you must tell me Stef’s secret. My son graduates in May and wants to move to LA because he wants to be a writer in TV. He is graduating from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications with a degree in TV, Film and Radio and also a degree in English and Textual Studies from their Collge of Arts and Sciences. How did she manage to get such a great job and have such a short commute? I’m scared to death for him to move all the way out there on his own.

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