Proud Dad Moment. Son starts dating.

I always felt a little sorry for some of the jackasses who showed up to date Courtney. I didn't ask for much - good phone manners, general courtesy, don't be high.

One schmoe knocks on the door one Saturday evening. He's clearly buzzed. He looks at me and says, "Dude!" OK, you're out. He asks if Courtney's home, I say she's not and shut the door. She comes down a few minutes later, is not happy with me. I point out she's not going out with some stoner who calls me Dude.

Fast forward 10 years. She's in one of her friend's wedding. The kid is there, all grown up now, with his very hot girlfriend. He comes up, shakes my hand firmly, looks me in the eye and says, "Mr. Harris, good to see you sir. How are you doing?"

If you'd done that 10 years ago, I told him, you would have had a shot with my daughter.

Will you ever not be an asshole, Courtney asked me. Probably not, I replied.

I do like the dude she's with now (and will probably marry). He still seems a little nervous around me, even though I've never once been an asshole to him.

 

Good luck with that. Odds are good they'll lose their virginity well before they get their high school diploma.

 

Yeah - it is sometimes fun seeing them grow and develop in their relationships. And often not because, well, you just never know. My daughter briefly dated a guy we thought was OK. Polite, good family and all that. Turns out he was a fucking thief and ended up doing time.

Everybody knows you can't watch over them all the time but daggone if there aren't a lot of times you sure wish you could.

When David's first serious girlfriend - so dumb she couldn't spell VCU let alone get in there - broke up with him, I was on the road. He called me, very upset, and it took all I had not to shout GOOD! Had a wife at the time, she kept beeping in and when we finally connected she asked, "I feel awful for David but are you as happy as I am?" He recovered very quickly.

Mine made some mistakes, fortunately never the reckless kind that leads to a trip to court or worse. There were bad boyfriends, bad girlfriends. Fortunately, all ended up OK (so far). I adore my daughter-in-law and the guy who appears to be my future son-in-law is a quality person, too.