Parenting Gold Star (?)

Which in our family means summer camps.

Oh, the kids are happy playing together, and we usually have one or two of the neighbors kids running around too, so it’s not like they tend to get bored. But Tove is a big believer in making doubly sure that they don’t go stir crazy around the house, so summer camps it is.

Last week was Tae-Kwon-Do camp (Tove is also a big believer in beating up other people), and apparently it was all fine. But what do I know – I wasn’t interested in sports when I was small, I’m not interested in sports now either.

And as part of their camp (presumably when they were taking a breather from trying to kill each other), they had to write a letter home about how they are thankful to their parents. Oh, those wacky Asian self-defense sports and their respect for their elders – another thing I don’t seem to recall from my own childhood.

Anyway, very cute. They all seem to be well on their path of writing pleasing prose, and I see a promising career of writing Hallmark cards (and made-for-TV shows) for all of them.

Except possibly Celeste. There’s a WTF moment here:

You buy me lunch, breakfast and dinner. You bought me animals to play with so I could have a lot of fun in my life. Ok, fine so far. She’s a bit hung up on the “buying” part of this whole parenting gig, but hey, she’s just eight. She’ll get over it, and if she doesn’t, I guess she’ll fit right into the culture. But then comes the kicker:

You also let me bury them instead of flushing them down the toilet. Ooh, yeah! That’s some premium parenting there. Gold stars all around! It just makes me glow with pride.

Of course, she has clearly forgotten about the fish. We did flush those.