Since my mind is stuck like an old 45 (“hot, hot, hot, hot…”), I need to mention a trip to the store with big red bullseye’s everywhere. Due in no small part to her constant application of it, Sarah needed to buy more deodorant. I stood at the cart and quietly contemplated the other shoppers walking by us. Sarah stared at the deodorant display. I closed my eyes and felt the air conditioning moving the cool air through the store, keenly aware that most of the shoppers were too busy to notice it. Sarah picked up each and every type and fragrance of deodorant to read the labels. I stared at my toes and thought about how badly I needed to give myself a pedicure. Sarah attempted to sniff the deodorant containers through their packaging. I became impatient. “Sarah, would you please just pick one?” “But, I don’t know which one I want if I can’t smell them. Do you think this one smells better than that one?” I explained that I was going to sit cross-legged on the floor right there in the aisle if she didn’t make a choice. She plucked one from the shelf. “I like the sparkly label on this one.” Advertisers everywhere, put sparkles on all your products marketed to teenage girls.

There’s a long-standing acceptance that preacher’s kids or PKs have really difficult lives. The entire community recognizes them and notices their behavior missteps. Everything they say and do is liable to become the opening act for their parents’ sermons. I think the children (regardless of their age) of bloggers deserve the same sympathies. BKs have to tolerate their parents describing something as personal as deodorant shopping in public forums. Embarrassing your teenagers is a parental privilege. Bloggers just have their own pulpits.