Letters From Parris Island

If you want copies of my notes from my Parenting 101 Class, please spare yourself the trouble.  Fairly recently, my class average has dropped significantly.  It appears that I’m hovering around a pass/fail grade of 69.50.

As some of you may know, my son left for Marine Corps basic training on July 6, 2015.  He was a pretty determined young man and expressed many times that this was the path he wanted to take.  In fact, before he turned 18, he wanted his mom and I to sign his early enlistment papers to which we graciously said, “hell no.”  On his 18th birthday (July 15, 2014) he signed his own enlistment papers into the United States Marine Corps.

On Saturday afternoon, July 18, 2015 we received our first handwritten letters from our son.  I can’t tell you the excitement and the anticipation that my wife and I were feeling as we tore open the letters.  All of the positive emotions suddenly changed on a dime when we realized that he was extremely homesick and was questioning his enlistment decision.  Basically, in a nutshell, he wanted out.

It’s at that moment when you realize the fact that maybe I was not tough enough as a father.  I let my son quit too many times when I should have picked him up and forced him to honor and complete his commitments.  I made him soft and created an environment where quitting was accepted and tolerated.

His recruiter simply stated that there is nothing that a parent or any individual can do for that matter to prepare a Marine Recruit for basic training.  They have to live it, experience it, endure it, and survive it.  With that being said, my response to my son was something like this in the opening line:  Dear son, you are homesick.  Good.  You are questioning your decision.  Good.  Welcome to adulthood.