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Yep, been there, done that....
Make the most of it! I only have one of mine at home now. The others are married and have their own lives to rush around in!
It definately keeps me hopping. My garden has suffered now that I am scrambling all over the place, lol. But I think the martial arts, dog training, sports, and even our walk/rollerblading outings are better for the boys than video games all day. Sad to say, but most of their class mates are overweight. My kids are not. My oldest boy is heavily muscled and strong, at 13 he weighs about 115 to 120 pounds, and stands at 5'5" tall. He will never be a sprinter, like his brother, but he is in shape. My youngest son, who is 12, is the opposite, slender and fast. He weighs about 80 pound and is still just under 5 feet tall. But he loves running and wants track and field. It will be interesting to see how my youngest son ends up after puberty, he hasn't gone through it yet. My older son hit puberty early, when he was 11 years old. My daughter, who has a different father than my sons, is 18 years old, weighs 110 pounds, and is 5'3" tall. She is a black belt in martial arts and is leaving to go off to college at Texas State in a few hours. She is nicely shaped and is muscled without looking bulky.
My main goals was to bond with my kids, provide learning experiences for later in life, help them with their respective issues, and give them some self defense in this crazy world. The only reason my youngest son isn't in martial arts now is because he started tring to bully people. So I pulled him out and finally found dog training for him. He seems to be settling and I may put him back in martial arts next year if his attitude keeps improving. Pairing him with a delicate, timid, gentle dog who he loves seems to be bringing out his softer side. Him making the demo team has helped, he and his dog were our first pair to make the team. My next goal for him is compitition, see how he reacts to winning and losing.
My older son, by contrast is a follower. He allows his younger brother to lead. He needs self confidence. He also struggles with a reading disability and speech issues. It has led to children at school picking on him. Thank goodness the boys stick up for each other, they fight horribly at home, but anywhere else and they defend each other. My goals for my older son are different than for my younger son. I want him to gain confidence in himself. So he does martial arts and dog training. I paired him with my Belgian Malinois, Rascal. Rascal is confident, and is dog aggressive, but i had already obedience trained him. In order to control Rascal my older son has to be confident and firm. The difference in him is not as noticeable as with my younger son, but he can control Rascal at training and in public. Because of Rascal's aggression he will never be on the demo team. So when Dawn and I made the team yesterday I past her to my oldest son. He can train Rascal in obedience and Dawn in agility so that he can get the confidence he needs. Dawn is pretty well trained now, she just needs to work on her weave. She takes the teeter, and all other obstacles except the weave off leash. I still have Phantom to train in agility, that pup needs an adult to train him right now. Phantom either takes off in turbo or refuses to pay attention. I can trust Dawn, Sasha, and Rascal to slow the boys enthusiasm down. But not Phantom, not yet anyway. Cheyenne might go into agility, but she is a rescue and first needs to get over her fears of people and dogs. For now she trains in obedience, and only does jumps, nothing else. I guess I get to train the hard cases and the boys get to enjoy, lol.
We got here for different reasons, but I'm using everything I can to improve my sons lives and give them the tools and skills they will need as adults. It has brought us closer and we have a blast doing it together.
