The kiddos and I are spending most of August in Chicago living under my parent's roof. Please say a prayer for us.

"This make a good blog post."

"What would?"

"This. What we are doing now."

"Why?"

"Because America parents is too nice. They don't tell truth. Kids should know truth."

My Polish born father sat deep in his lounge chair observing my American born children dive into the pool. He started grading them on their performances. Dive after dive my three kids dove into the pool waiting to see who would earn the highest score. My father sat motionless in his chair, taking the judging too seriously. A slight nod of the head meant acceptance with room for improvement. A shoulder shrug meant you should try harder. Slowly the competition started to get heated and the point system was introduced. Spoiler alert: no one has earned a perfect ten. Yet.

"I the judge. I judge you with truth."

EEDJ (Eastern European Diving Judge): "You no keep your feet together! Five point five."

AM (American Mom): "Nice effort, Jay!"

EEDJ: "Remember. You do it right and I give you right score."

AM: "Always try your best, handsome!"

EEDJ: "I no like what you did last time. Try it again!"

AM: "Keep up the positive attitude, girlfriend!"

EEDJ: "That's good. But not good enough. Seven point three. Next time improve on keeping legs straight."

AM: "Wow! That was your best dive yet."

While my kids strive to earn that perfect diving score from the stubborn judge this August I have to remind myself that we make a good team, my Polish-born father and I the Polish-born-turned-American mother. "Kid's can't learn coping skills if they never have to cope with anything" (brilliant quote from this article written by a friend). One day soon enough my children will meet another EEDJ type of person who will say to them "You are not the best. There's always someone better." and instead of crawling in a hole accepting defeat I hope they are strong enough to say "I am perfect the way I am. Just watch me!" like they did this afternoon when they dove into the pool in front of the Tiger Grandfather.