BABY MISTAKES

One thing I like about writing is my ability to erase words that don’t fit.

I can type, “Lucy detected a faint smell when she entered the room.”

If a rotten potato is in the kitchen, I can erase the word “smell” and type, “Lucy detected a faint odor when she entered the room.”

Or if roses are on the counter, I can erase the word “odor” and type, “Lucy detected a faint fragrance when she entered the room.”

Eventually, I find the right word without having to correct myself in public.

If that were only possible in daily conversations!

This week, I sat in the middle school guidance counselor’s office with my son to register him for high school. When the counselor joined us, she didn’t recognize me.

“We have met before,” I told her during the introduction. “Our babies played baseball on the same team last year.”

As soon as the word “babies” flew out of my mouth, I wanted to backspace and change the noun to “children,” “boys,” “sons” – any term but “babies.”

The word does not come close to describing the young men we watched defend bases and score runs on the baseball diamond last spring.

But the conversation couldn’t be rewritten.

The word hung in the air like an unpleasant scent as my “baby” signed up for classes in economics, physics, literature and foreign language.

When we left the guidance office, my son said, “Babies? Really, Mom?”

As I watched him head down the school hallway back to class, the word choice still stung.

My son’s voice has changed. He’s taller than me. He wears a size 13 shoe. He’s “a teen,” “a young man,” “a strong athlete.”

All this is true. But he’s still my baby.

-- cawk