Choices....

I'm a proud momma today. Well, I'm a proud momma everyday, but today I'm especially proud. This move to Florida has been SOOOO good for Matthew. He's just flourished. Really grown up. Everyone in our household is so much happier. But he's really taken all of the change in stride. He has little neighborhood friends that he plays with outside of school. And he LOVES it. They come over here, he goes over there. And only 1 "incident" (which wasn't really an incident) in almost 3 weeks!

So today the group of them rings the bell after lunch and out Matthew goes to play football. He's got his cell phone that he takes with him so that he can call me or I can call him at any time. Quite convenient I do say.... Anyway, I digress. An hour into play he calls and asks if he can go over to Seth's house with "the group" to watch a movie. Sure, I say. And I innocently ask what they are going to watch. He's not sure - Seth's got lots of movies. Internally I'm hoping there are no skin flicks in his collection, but I quickly put those thoughts out of my mind. I tell him to have fun and the conversation ends.

About 10 minutes later the door opens. In walks Matthew. What happened to watching a movie, I ask? He says that they decided to watch Freddy vs. Jason (a horror movie for those unaware of what that is). Knowing who Freddy & Jason are, Matthew said that he just politely told them, "No thanks". And, he said excitedly, "They were cool about it!" He's still afraid of not "fitting in", but knew that watching Freddy vs. Jason was not a good idea for him. On a side note, when I was in 5th grade & visiting my dad for the weekend we went to his girlfriend, Carol's house. The supervision was a bit lacking & I ended up watching Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddy of the Freddy vs. Jason). Oh man. I'm a horror junkie now, but I had NIGHTMARES from that movie. FOREVER. Ok, it was probably just months, but it was a long time in a kid's world! I wouldn't let my poor mom turn her TV off until I was asleep. Anything else would make me dissolve into hysterics. Matthew knows this story. He actually had showed interest in seeing a horror movie so I told him about my experience. That cured him of wanting to watch one.

I'm just so impressed that he asserted himself. And did what he thought was "right" for him. Would I have had a problem with him watching Freddy vs. Jason? Not necessarily. But I certainly don't think he's ready to handle it.

I'm so proud of my kiddo today. Good choice, Matthew. Makes me know that I can really trust you!