Rindge NH – This past Christmas, a Google search for RAM dealers near me, performed by a southern New Hampshire mother might have served to restore peace to her increasingly turbulent household.
Ask most men, and they’ll agree that the relationship between fathers and sons can prove to be a slippery slope; one that can be difficult for both to navigate. Generational disconnect, barriers in communication, and even competition can prove challenging (or in some cases, damning) to the father-son dynamic. Hell, it gets even worse if the son is cooler (or more physically endowed than the dad) but that’s a conversation for an entirely different periodical (I know because my therapist has several issues in her waiting room). That said, let’s get back to the story at hand.
Leanne Casey and her husband Michael have been married for nineteen years, and have two children, Leah (age 18) and Brayden (age 14). The former might be described as a ‘dream child’; an accomplished scholar-athlete, well-mannered yet assertive, well-liked socially and, thus far, exceeding the expectations placed upon her as a college freshman. The latter, on the other hand, is exactly as one expects of a fourteen-year old boy: surly, emotionally distant and lacking consistency in his hygienic practices.
“I sometimes wondered where my precious baby boy went,” explains Mrs. Casey, holding a framed photo of a smiling Brayden on his first day of Kindergarten as her husband shrugs in silent agreement.
“He just sits in his room all day,” adds Michael. “And when he’s not playing video games for hours on end, he’s on YouTube watching videos of other people playing video games. I just don’t get it. I wish we had more in common. It would be so much easier if he liked trucks and tools and the outdoors like I do.”
Together, Michael & Leanne run a successful landscaping company with fifteen employees. Michael manages the various teams out on the job, while Leanne remains focused on the ‘business end’ of things. Their hope was that (at least one of) their children would be interested in joining the family business but, with Leah targeting a career in design and Brayden’s general disinterest, things weren’t looking good. Until late 2018, that is…
Enter the holiday season, complete with intense financial scrutiny and a wide array of significant purchases to be made. Leah had requested a new MacBook Pro for her design work, and Brayden was looking to upgrade from 8GB to 16GM of RAM to improve his gaming experience. On top of that, a banner year for the landscaping business had empowered the Casey’s to increase the size of their fleet, adding another RAM pickup to their lineup.
“There I was, online, researching everything from the kid’s presents to fleet incentives, when it hit me that I was – in essence – Google’ing RAM for both Michael AND Brayden! They finally had something in common! They both wanted RAM!”
And in the most forced connection since Superman and Batman realized that both of their mothers were named ‘Martha’, Leanne Casey was certain that she had finally built a bridge between her husband and son. And she HAD (albeit not the one that she had expected…)
“We just burst into laughter,” recounts Michael, laughing alongside his son.
“I was like, Mom…they’re not the same thing!”
But Leanne Casey isn’t offended by the good natured ribbing. “I was just so happy to hear them laughing together. I can’t remember the last time I saw that happen”, she explained with tears in her eyes.
And you thought The Lemon wasn’t capable of sharing a simple and heart-warming feel-good story. Psssht.
