PKs of our acquaintance
I've written before about our daughters being double PKs.
In the churchy world, PK is a familiar nickname for "preacher's kids," usually used to account for either their territoriality at church, precocious knowledge of the Bible or theology or doctrine, ironically irreverent attitudes, or (most often) some less-than-desirable behavior despite their supposedly upright parentage.
I've called our kids double PKs because it seems to me that there are certain parallel behaviors among professors' kids, marking them either precocious, obnoxious, cynical, overly indoctrinated, or simply odd as relates to the realm of knowledge.
Take, for example, Edith's recent contribution to her class's week-long study of Johnny Appleseed. In the midst of coloring apples and talking about a friendly, barefoot guy sharing with others out of the goodness of his heart and helping make the frontier bloom, Edith announced to her reading teacher that in fact, you can't usually get sweet apples from seed. Apples for eating need to come from grafted trees, she explained, and what Johnny Appleseed was doing in bringing apple seeds to the frontier was providing a source of hard cider to the settlers, so they could get good and lickered up. I'm sure it was a welcome contribution to first-grade social studies. Yet I confess, as the P in the equation, I was proud that she knew the facts. I suspect that that (not-so-)secret pride of the Ps helps make PKs who they are.
Other amusing recent examples, related to me by the Ps of PKs:
The daughter of a local minister recently had a younger sibling born. At children's time in the worship service, the person offering the children's message turned to the girl with a smile and asked if she wanted to tell everyone about her new baby sister. "No," she said. "We're not here to talk about babies. We're here to learn about redemption."
My colleague's kindergartner wrote his own Valentine to each of his classmates. Coming up with the most loving message he could think of, he addressed them: "Dear My Friend, I really like you. I think you are a Democrat. Love, Z"
I imagine kids of those in other fields have their own comparable quirks. I'd love to hear about them.
4 comments:
Should be a fun parent-teacher conference! Proud of my PKN, though.
Wow, I have never heard about PKs or about the apple situation at the frontier, so this was great. I wish I could share some great story about my children's knowledge of the human body to add to your PK collection (in this case Physician's Kid)Alas, the crowd here spends their free time screaming potty words at each other, which hardly counts in that regard.
When Elan has a scrape or a cough he starts insisting that he needs to go to the doctor and complains to his teachers and sitter that his mommy won't take him. My reassurance that I am in fact a doctor and as such I am pretty sure that the medical community has little to offer for his particular ailment does not stop his complaints. So around here being a PK apparently just means a lack of access to cough suppressants.
um, brilliant. I wish I could also add to the litany of good stories... Stella is very nosy about our neighbors and keeps tabs on everyone... and has been interested in anatomy lately, in the fact that she pointed out that her bear vitamins all had "'ginas" and so did the Owl valentines that we made for the grandparents. At this point, considering my job prospects, she is more of a TK than a PK - a Theatre kid, and excels in directing everyone around. Go figure. ;)
My PKs leave me shaking my head most Sundays. Please, no one expect my child to be better behaved then yours! And keep in mind that my girls' Sundays might be a bit more hectic then yours, which might result in... more interesting behavior?
Last week during the children sermon, Kevin asked the kids if they knew the story of Noah. Some yeses, some nos, Abby had to say she knew about the rainbow. Hannah, however, decided to talk over him and recount the whole story, start to finish, and was quite mad that he didn't listen.
Later, of course, she ran like a wild woman through fellowship hall, in and out of tables of coffee drinkers.
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