I’ve spent the past year or so wondering when I’d feel that my child had totally, utterly outclassed me. Well, wonder no more: that time has arrived. I’ve still got a lot to teach Simon, naturally, but the boy—at 6!—has lapped his mother when it comes to being well rounded.
The reason I’m thinking about this is that yesterday the child was on fire. His day began at the Louisville Tennis Club (where, fyi, I ran into an old KIP friend of Simon’s and had a lovely chat with a woman who shares my surname), where he was bumped up to an older group. Whereas Monday he played with 5- and 6-year-olds with minor grumbling, Tuesday he played with 7- and 8-year-olds. This is a happier spot for him, as Simon would rather be a small fish in a big pond than vice versa. As it happens, he won the “player of the day” award for winning some contest or other and/or chasing down the longest volleys.
He capped off this success by going to Putt-Putt with my mom, where he sunk a hole-in-one on the 18th, earning a free game. He then went on to convince my almost 74-year-old mother to go out and play soccer with him. Simon has a very good Bubbie, a Bubbie who is probably getting pretty fit from all the soccer her grandson foists on her.
Next up Simon came home, ate dinner, and watched Jeopardy, where he knew one of the questions. “What is Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang?” He’s been watching for a few weeks now, but this was the first time he could call out an answer. It was an exciting moment for him. After this bit of down time, he went downstairs and played the longest sustained drum beat I’ve ever heard. Matt would have to explain what exactly he was doing, but it involved choosing particular beats and/or patterns and then matching them to fills. He was quite literally rocking out, and it sounded like real drumming to me for the first time ever.
Finally, we let him play just one little game of Ten Days in Europe (a strategy game with a geography twist to it) before bed, and for the first time ever he beat us both and needed very little help to do so.
Not all days can be like this, of course. Today was unusually successful. But the fact remains that at the tender age of six and a half, Simon is proving himself to be not only a good student, but also a decent athlete and musician. I’m really proud of him, and more than a little humbled.