Eric didn't beat you to it.
I was not speaking of a generic song about a father and son, but a song built around that particular line you shared. The idea that those precious memories of them as children will sometimes be the thing that gets you through parenthood, when more troubling days come in their lives, or maybe when they rebel and don't want to speak to you for 6 months, etc...
That is, if I understood you correctly? But that's the way I took it.
That would make for a great song, of understanding and love between parent and child. There are plenty of generic songs about how precious a baby is, or worrying that they will grow up healthy and secure or whatever.
But the image that came into my mind from your words, was some rift or argument ensuing between a father and his son, and maybe the son is spewing angry words at his dad, but the father, even though looking at a grown son, or nearly grown son, keeps seeing the little boy who was frustrated because he couldn't hit a baseball after several tries, and the father keeps encouraging him, and he finally gets that good swing and is so happy when he hits the ball for the first time, or the father sees an image of his son curled up asleep and remembers how he would pull the blanket back up and over him while he slept.
In other words:
"Son, you're looking at me in anger, like an enemy of yours right now, but when I look back at you, I see that precious boy who picked wild flowers and brought them to his mother, that boy who cuddled up beside me when the movie got to the scary part, that same little boy I worked so hard to provide for and to protect."
Parents endure alot from kids, out of love. The idea of holding onto the cute or touching memories, for when their lives get more complex or frustrating, or maybe they are making huge mistakes which a parent knows can only end badly, and a parent can do little but pray and hope for the best.... that is moving, and a great theme for a touching song... a look into a parent's heart, and the sacrifices made and the heartaches that inevitably come here and there.
It's not easy to hold that much anger for someone, when you think of how cute and innocent and fragile they were at one time, and they only had you to depend on as they faced a great big world while they grew up.
How many new parents think "Now I understand what my parents went through with me."
Maybe a song like that would help them understand a parental heart BEFORE they end up learning by becoming parents themselves?
.
