It is good when they come home for the Christmas break. It is nice to see how they have grown, nice to see they are gaining on eloquence. He thinks that same old food is wonderful. He is in school out of state, hasnt been here since August.Our girls play softball, just finished up the fall season earlier this month. We have a lot of stuff around the house - gloves, balls, bats, leg protectors for me etc. Son just home from school comments that it looks like a sporting goods store here. Then he comments about how when he was their age (11 and 12) that he didn't have any good stuff.
Like mentioned in another thread now, I have kept his old glove from a much earlier time. For me it represents when his love for baseball was the most intense and pure, before he became jaded by all the other stuff that can go hand in hand with baseball. Any way, that glove probably cost $40 and at the time was a stretch for us. That was 10 years ago, and now 50 or $60 for a softball mitt doesn't seem too out of line.
I felt for a few moments that I had failed him in his younger life by not giving him all the baseball equipment (that, and other things)he may have wanted. He is 21 now, he just doesn't understand how we can have all that stuff for the girls while he had nothing but a glove and hand me down bats at that age - and even a bit older. I can't justify that to him, to me its like the apples and oranges comparison. I know he feels like a stepchild. Ok, he is, but he doesnt have red hair. His feelings are of being slighted when he was younger. Those feelings are valid, but I'm not sure they are accurate. We just didn't have the money. We have just done the best we could with what resouces we had at the time.
This isn't a major point with us this Christmas break, but his 1 or 2 comments about the inequities bug me. I love him, I bust my a$$ for him and my family - to give him many things that the girls don't get because they are too young. And for all that to come down to a sentance or 2 about what he didn't have when he was 12, kind of a downer for me.
It's fun, kind of in a sadistic way to watch him around here where it's not really his home anymore. He has his own apartment in another state. Half of the time he seems like a fish out of water, the other half he is adapting to our family and his role here. Like I said, fun to watch. Hate to say, but also good to know that Christmas break is finite.
I quickly nipped any of those thoughts though! He has a HS teammate who plays in the minors who's mom told me that the kid has a 1:30 curfew since he's home. I'm pretty sure that's a different timeline than he's used to on his own! I try to remind myself that they probably feel like it's a huge adjustment being back home - even though they're happy to be here and we're happy to have them. In just a couple of weeks - we'll all go back to our normal routines! I think my daughter fluctates between being glad he's here (gets rides) to wishing he was gone again (she likes having all the attention). 
