The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What is one thing that happened recently, that you would like to remember in 10 years?

They say you should record the moments you want to remember in a decade. Ten years from now, I don’t want to remember the frantic pace of the holidays; I want to remember a single phone call Kid 1 made to his mom—AKA X1—on a random December morning.

When Kid 1 came to town for Christmas, the schedule was packed, as it always is when family converges. However, things are different this year. Most noticeably, Kid 1 is now 18. He is no longer obligated, under a court-ordered custody arrangement, to spend any time with me. On the flip side, I could legally decide I want nothing to do with him. But if you know me at all, you know that’s not even an option.

As I’ve mentioned before, for his unofficial “East Coast Tour,” Kid 1 took a bus from school in Madison, Wisconsin, to Indianapolis to visit his cousin. From there, the two of them rode up to Michigan, where he spent a few days with his aunt and uncle before finally hooking up with me.

Initially, our plan was to meet on Sunday. He called and asked to push it to Monday to spend more time with his cousins. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that would push our planned Christmas Eve meetup with X1 back to Christmas Day. He agreed.

When I finally got him on Monday, I immediately put him to work. My mailbox had fallen down that weekend and I needed an extra set of hands to reset the pole—at least temporarily, since you can’t cement wood into the frozen Michigan ground.

That evening, he crashed hard. He warned me that his cousin’s roommate had been sick, but I think the fatigue was a symptom of his ADHD. Kid 1 tends to operate at 150% power right up until the second he rests. When he shuts down, he hits a wall.

Early the next morning, without me even realizing it, Kid 1 did something that stopped me in my tracks. He called his mom and asked if it was okay to push back their meetup by another day. He wasn’t asking because of a scheduling conflict. He was asking because he wanted to spend one more day with me.

The Unexpected Win

It might sound “corny,” but for a father who has spent the last few years in a “recoup and rebuild” phase, that moment was everything. In the middle of this major transition in roles—from raising a boy to guiding a man—there is a lingering fear: Am I still the person my kid wants to be around?

That extra day was my answer.

It wasn’t a day of grand gestures. We didn’t look at lights or visit downtown Detroit as I had planned. We did, however, rechristen Phred’s hot tub with a celebratory soak. It was just more time. And in the economy of the heart, time is the only currency that matters.

The validation didn’t come from “sentimental time.” It came from the mundane. I put him to work again—this time helping me put a new lid on the hot tub and removing a warped wheelchair ramp we had installed for my mother. He even took it upon himself to grab the power washer and clean the patio.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that leaving South Carolina while he was growing up is the biggest regret of my life. I did it to build a better financial future for him, but no amount of money can buy back the days you miss. That phone call was the only Christmas gift I needed.

A Marker for the Future

Ten years from now, Kid 1 will be well into his own adult life, and I’ll be looking back on these “tween years” of my second act. I want to look back at this post and remember exactly how it felt to be “chosen” for an extra day.

The telling thing for me is that I wasn’t trying to be “the cool dad.” Kid 1 was just happy to be around. He enjoyed doing everyday household chores with me. That is what I want to remember about Christmas 2025.

Well, that and the Jared Goff jersey I got—which was definitely this year’s “Red Ryder BB Gun” level of gift-giving. But that’s another story for another day…

If you missed this morning’s post “Of training, wheels, and Christmas lights, ” and what lead up to this post, you can read that HERE.

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AI art created with Google Gemini

The article “The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.

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