This child of mine

 

has turned a corner in her life. She is just a couple months shy of being 19, working, going to college...and has become smitten with a dude. And apparently he is pretty smitten with her. I'll call this dude Nick (because that's his name). Nick has known my daughter for quite some time but couldn't convince her to go out with him until last year. It's pretty much been non-stop since then.

 

On New Year's Day while I was working, Nick approached my husband and asked if he could have a chat. The house was full of people so my husband jokingly said, "What? Do you want to marry my daughter or something?" The reply? "Well, since you brought it up." Troy looked around, looked at Nick and told him they would talk later.

He promptly took two pain pills and went to lay down.

He left that poor kid in limbo ALL. DAY. at the house. I'm sure it was agonizing but Troy was of the opinion that it is a right of passage for a guy when asking the dad permission to take his little girl away. He had to do it with MY dad so I guess he figured this was his moment for paybacks.

He called me when I was on my way home and told me to call when I was in front of the house. I asked why but he wouldn't tell me. This is NEVER a good thing in the history of things at the Pryor house. So of course I immediately threw up. Okay, I didn't really throw up. But I wanted to. It's the same thing. As I approach the house I can see my oldest son piling in a car with 4 other people. I see another car I'm not familiar with which means my other son is there. And my daughter's car is there. I call. Troy comes out and hops in the car. I look at him, waiting. Anticipating what is to come. I wanted to throw up in his lap. "What happened?" is my natural question when he says nothing for approximately 2 seconds. I think I waited long enough. Don't judge me. He looks at me all unconcerned about the state of my stomach and announces we are just going to dinner.

After we have ordered our food, Troy takes a deep breath and says, "Well, I guess Nick and Lindsay want to get married." It's funny how the unknown wanted to make me hurl but actually knowing rendered me speechless. This is a pretty difficult thing to do. Troy explained how the day had unfolded and that Nick was wanting to talk to him. I looked at him, confused. "You mean you still haven't had this talk?" He had not. That poor kid was still at our house waiting for the conversation. Nice. So I asked the next logical question. "Well, what are you going to tell him?"

"I'm going to tell him NO."

I laughed. It was my other natural response. So we had a long talk over dinner about how they could pretty much do whatever they wanted since they were both over 18 but wasn't it nice that he was doing the old-fashioned thing and asking permission.

We finally got home. The conversation took place. My husband lived.

There's no date. No solid plans....other than the fact they are looking 4 years out. Lindsay wants to finish school first. They are talking. Being responsible. Thoughtful.

I would love to lecture them both about how young they are, that life is full of challenges and that they need to prepare emotionally and financially for what they are about to embark on. But who am I to say a word? She's the same age I was when Troy proposed to me....but I didn't have a 4 year plan.

Mine was 6 months.

*sigh*