The Cats Out Of The Bag...Sort Of

Saturday, February 27/16

So on the drive home from this mornings final winter soccer game my talk with my son turned to his girlfriend and how she is doing with the new semester. She suffers from some anxiety and I talked to him about dealing with her and how he can't be the final person she turns to as that is a lot of pressure for him to carry at 16 years of age.

He mentioned that she was doing a blog and has switched it to a vlog on YouTube. I told him that doing a blog is a great way to express yourself without coming out directly and giving away too much personal information but that a vlog is much more open to the public and she really needs to be careful with what she says about herself as it can get real in a very short time, not always to a good extent either.

As soon as I said that to him I knew I'd opened up Pandora's Box and waited for the inevitable follow up questions that he was going to have shortly.

I wasn't wrong as he asked me how I knew so much about blogs.

As we entered the house I told him I'd been doing a blog for a few years now and found it a great source of help when dealing with things in my life.

He asked me what kind of things and I told him everything, including how I parented him, dealt with relationships, that literally anything that might cross my mind was fair game for a blog entry.

He just looked at me and gave me that oh so subtle signal that my answer wasn't good enough and he expected me to expand upon it.

So I told him the number of blog entries I've posted to date, the number of hits the entries have generated, how I never use any one's full name other than my own, that the blog has helped me deal with everything from his illness to the names of the golf courses I've played.

Than I told him something that left him a bit frustrated......that I was not going to tell him the blog name as it was something for me and not him. He's not happy with that and I can see him trying to find it online at some point in time down the road.

He asked if his mom knew about the blog and I told him no, and neither did his sister, but that C was aware of it.

He asked how she knew about it and I told him I'd talked to her about it and felt it was a good way for her to understand me better without having to sit there and listen to me talk for hours on end, that the blog does a better job of telling my fears and hopes and allowed her to take it in at her own pace.

His next question was whether she liked it and still reads it. I told him she did enjoy it but I don't think she reads it anymore as she doesn't need the reminder about my feelings given her decision to live her life without me.

He stood up from the couch and came over and gave me a hug and told me he thinks it is pretty cool that I blog and he can see how I'd be good at it.

So the cat is out of the bag but still hidden somewhere in the house....if you follow the metaphor :)

Marcus