Out of Touch with my Pre-teen! Already!!

All the underwear in Alex's drawer is solid. It's been that way for years. No airplanes, no spiderman, batman and definitely no Telletubbies. Those don't even fit Little Skye anymore but he won't admit it. Won't read the writing on the waistline at the end of the day that appears in the form of a pink ring around his middle.

Skye won't put underwear on unless it has a print. Underwear and shirts. Alex? Not a single drawer with a print. With one exception -- one package of underwear with prints has been sitting in his drawer unopened because I accidently bought the wrong size. Two sizes ago.

In that time, the boy's standards have changed. Solids, yes. Prints, you've got to be kidding me. This morning with his eyes still half closed I tossed him a pair of the new underwear with the rocket print. He slid them on without really looking. But suddenly the pattern caught his half awake eyes. Just as slowly as he pulled them up he slid them right back down in one continous movement, looked at me through his bangs and said in that sarcastic monotone that teenagers use, "Seriously".

I laughed a hearty laugh but underneath, as I tossed him a pair of solids from his drawer, I pondered how out of touch I was with what I thought could pass as acceptable for my changing, growing boy. Brought back memories of my mother's "out-of-touchiness" that plagued my wardrobe as a pre-teen on into college.

Oh my God! It's happened! Over a pair of underwear no less! The generation gap just cracked open and I'm losing my credibility!! A slip like this, where a parent appears stuck in the dark ages, is costly at this stage in a boy's development.
From now on if I say bright he'll say dark because I was wrong with that rocket underwear so can he trust me on bright next month? Next year? Next decade! We're on shaky ground now. You can't erase rocket underwear from your mind's eye. It was a defining moment.

Does this mean he's going to stop making sound effects of rockets the next time he builds one out of legos?? Is this the impetus for that rite of passage a boy makes from making sound effects to not talking? Rocket underwear??

Oh Mercy, What Have I DONE!!!!