As the boys get further into their teen years, I find perpetual adjustment is needed in finding ways of connecting with them. When opportunities open up, I try to be aware and make the most of them.
Take, for example, breath mints and gum.
Sometime in the past year, I noticed that when I had a pack of gum or mints in my car, the kids would always go for a piece. I started buying different flavors of gums, various types of mints... freshmint, spearmint, cherry mint (I don't recommend it), super mint blast, green leaf mint, whatever... and when a new flavor was introduced to the collection, it usually got notice. "oooh, blue arctic blast mint. cool."
Which only encouraged this mint discovery and hoarding practice.
This week I noticed that my console is literally overflowing with an assortment of checkout-lane impulse buys.
The casual observer might think I'm really into fresh breath.
Really, I'm just into my kids.
