Home Alone

Our 17-year-old son is the human equivalent of a Labrador Retriever. He's a friendly, good-natured kid, reasonably smart, but totally clueless.

We left him home alone overnight for the first time this week. My wife and daughter went to Houston on short notice for a chick fling with a couple of friends of theirs. I was planning on spending several days hunting, but cut the trip short when they decided to go. Still, that him left one night with no adult supervision - and a brand new girlfriend. He's normally a pretty responsible kid, and we trust him, but ... he is 17 years old.

So he and I had a heart-to-heart talk before I left, and we set the ground rules. The main one was "No visitors." In light of his new-found love, I also passed on two rules my Dad set for me when I was 17.

Rule #1 - Keep it in your pants.
Rule # 2 - When you break Rule #1, keep it covered.

Both my wife and I left town on Tues. The boy and his girlfriend were planning on exchanging their Christmas gifts that day, and then going out to dinner afterwards. About 3:00 that afternoon I got a phone call from the boy. His girlfriend's parents were having some people over to their house, so he wanted to shift the gift exchange to our place.

Well...

At least he asked. And like I said, we trust him. So I said okay, but she had to leave by 8:00, and he had to be back home no later than 10:00 that evening. And I told him I'd be calling the house to make sure everything was okay. (Trust, but verify...)

When I got home Wed. evening I asked him how things went.

• The gift exchange went well. He got her a cookbook (!), which he said she liked.

• Rather than going out to eat, he fixed her dinner. We've been working with him in the kitchen trying to teach him the basics. Evidently some of the cooking lessons stuck, but the tips on romance didn't. For their big romantic dinner he made her scrambled eggs and toast.

Sigh...

However, when I stopped and thought about it, I realized that (1) he has a girlfriend who has a job, and (2) she likes to cook.

Maybe the boy is smarter than I give him credit for...