Trick or Treat! - [The Courtship Series #18]

Transcript

Sweetheart, what are you looking outside for? They'll be here soon. Baby is barely starting to get dark, okay? The trick-or-treaters are going to be around soon.

Would you come away from the window, please? Honey, you've already checked that. And that, too.

Sweetheart, you need to face it. Everything is ready. You've done this so many times.

You've got this, okay? They'll come when they come. Well, it's a little bit rainy this year.

I don't know. If we don't see any in the next ten minutes, I'll be really surprised, okay? I have not been snitching the chocolate.

Okay, I may have taken, like, one York peppermint patty. Okay, fine, I had three. You got the whole big Costco bag.

You got two of them. The big Costco bags, okay? We have candy for Halloween.

We got Christmas. We got Easter covered. Sweetheart, I think I know what's really going on.

I'm more insightful than you often give me credit for. Oh, please, darling. You comment to me all the time about my insightfulness, but then you act like I don't have any.

Oh, here come some right now. Hang on. Trick or treat? Well, look at you.

Take two. You can have two. Okay, hang on.

We got your Iron Man and you. You must be a black cat. And are you a spider? You're Spider-Man? Oh, my goodness.

That is awesome. That is so cool. I love your costumes.

Okay, you kids have a happy Halloween, all right? I got to know who Spider-Man is, right? All right, sweetheart.

Time for you to sit down here with me, okay? Chill right here with your man. I do know what's going on perfectly well.

Because I'm perceptive enough to see it, okay? Plus the fact that you've talked about it pretty much nonstop for two weeks. Sweetheart, he's fine.

Yes, I understand. It's the first time our son has gone out. Just him and his friends trick-or-treating.

No adults. I get it. But that's okay.

Baby, we knew this day would come. And it's not that he doesn't need us. He just needs us in different ways.

Look, if we do things the right way, he won't always need us, but he will always want us. Okay? And that's the key.

We want this boy to grow up to be a man who can survive out in the world, who can grab the bull by the horns, and make his life what he wants it to be. That's what we want, isn't it? Right, well, we don't get that by coddling him.

We don't get that by doing everything for him. No, I don't think we do, and that's the point. We have to give up control one step at a time.

Exactly. If we do everything for him, he's not going to know how to do anything for himself. He's not going to have the confidence he needs.

He's not going to be ready to face the world. What we need to do is exactly what we are doing. We've taught him the right things.

We've taught him how to look out for himself. We've taught him how to be responsible. We've taught him how to identify danger.

And then, when that baby bird is stretching its wings and it's ready to fly out of the nest, you've got to let it go, a little bit at a time. We're doing the right thing. This is a safe neighborhood, and he's with a good bunch of kids.

You kidding the kids he's with? These are the kind of kids that you want your kids to associate with, alright? This is exactly the group of friends that we want him to be with.

So stop worrying so much. I get that, sweetheart, but you're not seeing the other side of it. The other side of it is that there's a lot of pride to be had here.

Our little boy is taking his first steps. You know, every time he does something like this, he's taking another step in the direction we want him to. Independence, maturity.

And there's a lot of pride to be had in that. We are doing a good job as parents. We've prepared him for this.

He's healthy, he's well-adjusted, he's getting, you know, he's a responsible kid. He's a conscientious kid. I know, baby, but that's normal kid behavior.

You expect that. What I'm saying is that you're a hell of a good mom, okay? No, no, no, stop.

Take the compliment. And answer the door. Hey, kids.

Go ahead and take two, it's all right. Whichever two you want. I do love your costume.

You are the prettiest princess who's come here all day. You really, really are. You are adorable.

I love that. She did? Well, you tell your mom she picked out a good costume with you, okay? Take care.

What? Well, she was the prettiest princess, sweetheart. You're my queen.

And I love you. And I stand by what I said. You're doing a great job as his mom.

You need to give yourself credit for that. And don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of him, as I said, stretching his wings and getting ready to fly out of the nest.

It's part of life. It's what we want. We want a boy who's ready to step out into the world and hold his own.

What we don't want is to send our son off to college someday and have him totally unable to function because we've spoon-fed him every step of the way his whole life. And he has no idea how to do anything for himself or function independently. There is.

There is. There is a difference between being a responsible parent who's involved in your kid's life and being a helicopter parent. And we don't want to contribute to the problems caused by helicopter parents.

Do we? No. Okay, you are not an attack helicopter.

Okay, that's not even a funny meme anymore. You are a world-class nerd, is what you are. I love you.

I'm proud of us. For raising the son that we are. If these things were easy, well, let's face it, they're not easy.

Nobody gave us a manual. And while there are plenty of books on child rearing, there's no substitute for just jumping in there and doing it. But you have to be ready to make decisions and stand by them.

Our son is safe. He'll be home soon. With so much sugar.