As I’ve said before, raising my children was an enormous challenge. They put me through things that still make my hair stand on end. Their survival was my only mission. They gave what’s next a new meaning.
Ben enjoyed anything that involved wheels that he could ride, race or crash. He was danger personified. He enjoyed what was called bumper surfing. One behind the wheel of the car, the other holding on to the bumper. The rule, don’t let go. Everything from skateboards, bikes, even sleds. The driver would ago as fast as he could trying to throw his rider off the bumper. It was a terrifying pastime.
There was the day I got a phone call from him. While on the roof of the mall being chased by the police. I had no solution for him so I wished him luck and hung up. He was home a few hours later believing himself hysterical.
Living in a rural area offered many types of animals. I lost count of the amount that were brought into the house to be taken care of. Snapping turtles, a raccoon, and snakes. All inside to be safe from the elements. I walked around always worried that something was going to come out and attack me.
Heights were his adrenaline of choice, that and speed. We lived near some cliffs and waterfalls. One in particular, naturally the most dangerous was his favorite place to go. I was a firefighter back then, trained in high rescue but saving my son was not something I wanted to have to do. He would string up lines, attached to trees on either side and try to shimmy across. Or the hammock he bought and strung over the falls. I have a picture he took of himself hanging over the shear drop.
Keeping him in school was like trying to nail jello to a tree. He was constantly correcting the teachers or the text books. He was brilliant and extremely condescending in his delivery. The principal had me on speed dial. He was in mischief daily. Stories of tacks on the teachers chair, making a teacher cry in class, his creativity to this day remains unmatched. After years of struggling my solution was to home school the little bugger. He was expelled too many times. His transcripts for college were going to be a joke. Behavior problem and Constant need of discipline were stamped all over his folder. If he wanted college home schooling was the only way to go. Fun fact, he graduated with honors and was accepted to an Ivy League School. Brilliant he was but there’s a fine line between that and insanity. Wasn’t sure which side he was on.
Still standing, a survivor of the chaos chronicles,
K.
