Celebrating 12 years of parenting

Our son - a month old.

Today is my eldest son's 12th birthday. Wow, what a journey it's been since he was born. We first came to Japan when he was 18 months old. Now he's spent most of his life here.

We tried something different than a home-style party. The friends he wanted to invite came from different parts of Tokyo, so we decided to go to a restaurant somewhere in the middle. Shinjuku, actually. Right next to the busiest railway station in the world. Not that you'd know - we didn't see the station, a lot of it is underground. A little corner of Tokyo that has a population of more than 17, 000 people per square km. Also, I was amazed how much green was around - the view out of the restaurant was great!

The restaurant? Sizzler. Yes, there are a few of these in Tokyo and they are a favourite - in Japan or Australia. Not a bad choice when you are taking a handful of 11 and 12 year olds out for lunch.

Nothing sounds much out-of-the ordinary yet, does it? Just wait.

In the middle of our train journey my husband talks with one of the invitees, trying to get them to the party.

When I was in grade six, if I had a party to go to, one of my parents dropped me at the party and pick me up at the end. Not this party. We all travelled by train - by far the most efficient (time and cost) way to get to Shinjuku. Add to that the fact that we were meeting in Shinjuku. But due to some poor planning, we didn't say where in this huge train station that we were meeting. Add to that one person who was told the wrong time. We spent most of the time from after church (10.30) till 12.30, trying to communicate with these 11 and 12 year olds on their mobile phones (US=cell phone). They were all travelling on their own! They all had their one mobiles! A bit different from when I was a kid.

Eventually, about 12.30, we all met and ventured inside. Phew!

200+ floors in this building - the view from one window.

The other unusual thing for me about the party was that out of four guests, two of them were girls. It is the first party where my son has wanted to invite a girl (I think the other girl ended up coming as a friend of the first girl). Don't get me wrong, there is no romantic involvement here. I think these kids play together still as somewhat equals. A bit unusual, but nice, actually. An all-boy party isn't all that fun (in our opinion) - they do tend to get out of hand very easily. The girls helped balance things out a little. 

Though I realised pretty quickly I'd stepped out into a different world when one of the girls started talking about a boy in the class who'd sent her a text message saying, "I love you." She clarified by saying, "That isn't my real boyfriend, my real boyfriend is --- ." It didn't seem all that serious but still...hmmm. My newly 12 year old isn't quite there in that department yet. Despite these kids being rather independent with their train navigation and mobiles, they really are just big kids still.

Green trees amidst the concrete. Just to the left of the above photo.

It does occur to me that we are perilously close to having a teenager in the house. And once that happens, we will have teenagers in our house for at least 10 more years (though could be longer, depends on when our 6 year old moves out, which also depends on where we're living when he graduates from high school...).

Always new things to learn. I guess it keeps you young at heart. I wonder what will be different after 12 more years have passed in my life? One thing that seems pretty certain - these little boys will no longer be little, almost certainly I'll be the shortest in our family. And by then our house could resemble an empty nest!