On this Mother's Day, I have to do a little shameless bragging on my 14 year old son. He goes to a public middle school where the kids are brutally honest, and say all of the things that grown ups never have the guts (or sense of decency) to say, but we all are thinking! And this kid manages to keep his clearly defined sense of style through it all.

Ethan's preferred outfit is a tee shirt (or cross fit shirt) with harem pants and Nike free run shoes. And let me tell you, showing up to school like that with eighteen hundred 12-14 year old kids takes guts! The conversations go something like this:

Kids: "What are you wearing?!"
Ethan: "Free running pants, AKA harem pants."
Kids: "Why would you wear those?"
Ethan: "They are light and stretchy and look great!"
Kids: "It looks like you crapped your pants."
Ethan: "Are you done?"
Kids: "Sure..."
Ethan: "I'm not going to stop wearing them, so you might as well stop giving me grief." (Performs a standing back flip on the spot. And continues to wear the pants multiple times per week despite this conversation being constantly repeated.)

This morning, after I ordered the two new harem pants for him (shown in the photos below) Ethan said "I think the kids are finally getting used to me wearing this. I have given one pair to a friend and another kid wants to know where to get some. This other boy asks me if I am wearing them AGAIN and I can't tell if he is being mean or really is interested, so I choose to believe that he is interested."

I wonder what would happen if we all just wore exactly what made us happy, without worrying so much about what others think?

I want to be like my son when I grow up...

(Bonus pick of Ethan's back flip, taken by his friend.)