The Good Intentions of a Thank You Note

I am one of those moms who force their kids to do thank you notes. I have been doing this before they could write. Back in those days, I would write a few lines they would dictate to me, and then they would sign their names. It was a long, arduous process - but I believed they should learn to be thankful people and this was part of that development.

Nowadays, all I have to do is leave the list of who gave what and they do the notes themselves. I still address the outside, just out of consideration for the postal service. Sonny Boy finished and mailed all his Christmas thank yous last week. Princess is still working on hers. She takes more time and tries to make each one individual - which is really good.

After she did several last week, I looked over them before putting them into envelopes and addressing them. She had written one to my parents. The words were very nice. At the bottom of the note, she had drawn some pretty symbols - how thoughtful of her! She had drawn a hand with a finger pointing up and the letter "I" written on it. Just under it was a heart, and then just under that was the letter "U." How sweet! Then I looked more closely. The hand with the fingers was well drawn, but the finger that was held up was actually the middle finger.

I was about on the floor I was laughing so hard. I definitely mailed it to my parents. Mom agreed it was unlike any other thank you note she had ever received. I'm sure it's been a while since someone shot them a bird, and definitely a first from a grandchild.

If Princess does some more thank you notes, I'll have to be more selective as to who gets that kind of drawing...