Pulling Weeds and Planting Men

  It may sound strange, but I am thankful for weeds.

Weeds are a fact of life. Like unwelcome visitors, they show up unannounced and make themselves right at home, spurning the fact that they were not invited. As men, we take pride in our lawns, and each year millions of dollars are spent on products that claim to rid our otherwise pristine properties of these pesky intruders. Yet despite our best efforts, they just keep coming back.

With the holidays approaching, and Christmas decorations anxiously waiting to go on display, I planned one last ‘weekend cleanup’ of our front yard. Most of that cleanup would involve clearing out our flowerbeds, which have been actively overrun by these un-welcome visitors, and mowing the lawn one last time until Spring.

So when Saturday morning arrived I told my two boys that we would be doing lawn work, and surprisingly they didn’t run away in disgust. I anticipated a backlash, but they were actually excited about doing it. Which baffled me a little bit, but I didn’t complain. Maybe they just like the idea of getting dirty without being in trouble for it.

Who knows?

My wife actually had the crazy idea that I should let my oldest son mow the yard, which I hadn’t even thought of before. I have been so used to doing it myself for decades that I didn’t even notice how excited he was at the prospect of it, or that he was old enough.

So, after a cup of coffee, and wearing my oldest, junkiest ripped up jeans and an old, itchy flannel shirt that was once my Dad's, I got down in the dirt with my boys and we went to work on this crisp Autumn day. By the time we came back in, we were dirty, tired and hungry, but we had a few bags full of weeds and a mowed lawn to show for it. But thinking about it now, we had much more than that.

For starters, my oldest son mowed the lawn by himself for the first time. There is a certain pride in that, and I can remember to this day the first time I mowed when I was a kid. It is a milestone of sorts to push that mower I had seen my Dad push so many times.

I showed my youngest son that it is possible to get filthy dirty, dig around in the yard looking for night crawlers, and still be working.

I showed them that I see worth and value in who they are by letting them do work, and expecting they can do it just as well as I can. We told stories and laughed, and I have officially passed down to them the fine skills of pulling weeds and mowing the lawn. Which I will readily remind them of next summer.

As Dads, it is our job to build up our children, and this Saturday became an unexpected opportunity to do just that. Working together with our kids, teaching them even small things, and telling them stories about when we were kids, accomplishes this in a small way.

Which is why I am thankful for weeds.

(Previously published at http://playgrounddad.com/pulling-weeds-and-planting-men/)