Can You See Me Blush On the Phone?

The popcorn guy called tonight.

IMy son sold popcorn to help raise money for his scout pack. $450 worth of popcorn to be exact. Good stuff--kettle corn, microwave butter, caramel, chocolate hazelnut, cheese, and something called "military" corn, which translates to tins of popcorn that are delivered to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I He spent about a month on this project, selling it and delivering it all to friends and neighbors. Hard worker, he is. And it was good for him. He learned a little bit about money and a lot about filling orders and walking two or three cans of corn down the street even though it's cold and windy and he'd rather be playing. Because that's the right thing to do, see.

Anyway, tonight, the popcorn volunteer from his troop called to see what prize we'd like for the boy. The choices, he said, were a marshmallow shooter, a hiking set (carabiner, thermometer, water bottle, etc.), or a pocketknife.

I was all set to say "Pocketknife, please!" Thinking that we'd show it to him and put it away and then get it out for camping trips and other events when DH would be there to demonstrate and supervise. Never once thinking we'd just hand a sharp implement over to a six-year-old and be done with it.

I opened my mouth and said "P", and then Popcorn Man said, "Of course, he's probably too young for the knife. But that's your parenting decision."

My mouth, which had already formed the "o" that comes after the "P" just stopped. Just stayed there, like it was waiting for something to fling itself in there and call itself dinner. My parenting decision? Like, if I actually say, "pocketknife," are you going to hang up and call Social Services? Are we going to be booted from the troop and blackballed from future activities in the fear that we'll just let first graders grab weapons all willy-nilly and impale themselves while we're off doing more important things? And then does that mean you'll call the Girl Scouts and put my daughter on some kind of "watch this one" list before she even signs up next year?

My mouth re-engaged, finally. "Hiking kit." I'll have to ditch the bright red fanny pack it all comes in, of course, but the stuff inside is pretty cool. For a six-year old.

We hung up. And then I went online and ordered the boy a pocketknife for Christmas.

After all, it's my decision. Heh.