Vive La Difference

This parenting thing is really a kick in the head sometimes. My first born is almost a carbon copy of my personality. My second son is the polar opposite. This is sometimes entertaining, intriguing, and invigorating...and sometimes it's frustrating as all get-out.

Tomorrow night is the band concert at the middle school. This is the first year that Son #2 is playing the bassoon. He's only had the instrument since September...but not the beginning of September because of a procurement delay...and then there were several times he forgot to bring it home...plus a two week period when it got lost in the band room but then mysteriously reappeared.

Now...if I were in his shoes, I would have been practicing like mad to make up for lost time, and to make sure I knew the songs backwards and forwards before concert day. But I am the princess of compulsive preparedness. My middle child, whose philosophy is more like "que sera, sera," figures that he'll just play the pieces of the pieces that he knows and he'll keep silent the rest of the time. Mind you, there are only two bassoons in their symphonic band.

This would drive me crazy. And I am trying not to let it. But Sonny Boy keeps saying "It'll be fine, Mom. Don't worry." I'm trying to take him at his word, even though this laissez faire M.O. often comes back to bite him on the butt. Breathe deeply, Mom...and intone a calming mantra.