Detasseling

 Jay has been detasseling since July 10.  Does he like it.....No.  Does he complain.....barely.  Is he focused on the money......Yes.  That pretty much sums it up.  He really hates it but he's tolerating it.   I made an epic mistake the first day in asking him if it was hot outside.  Note to self, never ever ask anyone who has spent a day detasseling if it's hot out, especially when it's your 15 year old son.  Most mornings Mike drives Jay to meet the bus but one morning I drove him and this was the scenery I got a glimpse of.  If you look closely you can see the rainbow - beautiful. 

I'm really proud of Jay.  He absolutely hates detasseling, but he is doing very little complaining.  He's moving forward with it and focused on the end of it.  Age 15 has been hard on this momma, mostly because of all the transitions and I'm very focused on backing off from Jay (even though he may not feel like I'm backing off, ha).  Jay sets his own alarm for detasseling, gets himself up, feeds himself breakfast, and packs his lunch.  I have to pinch myself that I'm actually at this stage in parenting.  Detasseling is also one of those things that as a parent is hard for the short term but the long term effects will be worth it.  Jay will tell anyone listening that we "made him" detassel.  That is not true.  We very clearly told him he needed to work, doing something, this summer.  He applied at our local IGA and at a parks and recreation department, but neither of those jobs played out.  It's challenging for a 15 year old to get a job.  He knew he needed to have "some skin in the game" for a vehicle so detasseling it was.  Needless to say witnessing how Jay is handling detasseling and working for Mike this summer encourages Mike and I to help him as much as we possibly can with his car.  Forking over money for a car to a kid that did nothing all summer was not going to happen in this household.  Ha!  Thus far Jay has handled his schedule with maturity and has proven he can do something that isn't fun and do it as it should be done - with very little complaining!  And my final shout out to Jay is he had detasseled for a few days and was then given 2 days off.  Mike really needed Jay's help at Cornerstone for one of Jay's days off so he got out of bed on his day off and put a smile on his face and helped his dad.  Way to go, Jay!  I'm happy to report Jay is laying low today but gearing up for more detasseling tomorrow.