Some days, you just gotta brag....

Anyone who has met our prisoners in person will tell you they are really good. The warden and I sometimes comment that we have 6 prisoners-- three who go out in public as saints, and 3 who are terrors behind prison doors. I am happy that it works out that way as the inverse would just be too much. 

Also, as anyone who has met the prisoners can attest, #1 has difficulty with speech-- something she works hard at in therapy and is acutely aware of. Her teachers and therapist have stated numerous times how children like her are usually introverted and are scared to speak up. But not our #1. Perhaps it is because she has always been in class with #2.  While they do not have their own 'twin language' that is often times reported about twins, #2 could always understand her when others could not. He is her biggest supporter and I can only imagine that it helps her confidence. Perhaps it is just because she is a strong and confident young person. 

Confidence is something parents always hope their children will have, and we have it in excess with all three of our prisoners. Case in point, and my reason to brag, is that today at their organized playground, karaoke was set up. Now karaoke is a favorite pastime in the prison. Almost daily the machine is cranked up to ear shattering levels with Frozen songs, and more recently top 40 hits from Taylor Swift, Megan Trainor, Maroon 5 and even Jimmies Chicken Shack (a favorite of the Guard!). 

Upon pick up at playground today, they informed me about the karaoke. To my delight, #1 informed me that she performed 4 songs. In front of everyone. Her peers, older kids (up to 12 and 13), and staff (high school kids). Personally, I have had to work hard in my life to be able to speak in front of groups of people, and here is our oldest, performing in front of people. Speech be damned-- she has no fear. Predictably, #2 did not perform-- he is a boy, with some older friends, and already is starting to determine what is 'cool' for the cool boys to do. But, one of the things he does think is cool is to support his sibling as he stated how well she did, and how everyone applauded her. 

So yeah. I am bragging. Deal with it. 

Have I become "that" Guard/Dad?

The summer at the prison has been fun for the prisoners. They go to an organized playground every morning of the week for a few hours. They play with other prisoners in the community. They come back for lunch and either go to the community pool for the afternoon or play with other prisoners in the neighborhood. #3 is away at camp (aka she is spending a week being pampered at her great Aunt and Uncles house in Virginia-- thank you!!). Sprinkle in some swim lessons and other activities and you have a summer that make parents, guards and wardens very jealous. 

Today though, I did something that made me think-- wow, I am "that" guard (dad) now. Picking up #1 and 2 from playground, they were waiting on the street with a buddy when I arrived. As my prisoners were strapping into their transport, their buddy stood and waited for his warden to pick him up. An older gentleman walking a dog stopped and was speaking to him. I never saw this guy before, so I put the transport in park, and stared at the rear view mirror. Who was this guy?  Why was buddy talking to a stranger?  I am not moving until this buddy's warden shows up. Complete paranoia ensues. 

Maybe it was the rash of attempted luring at bus stops this spring where bad people were trying to get kids in their van. Maybe it was the attempted luring of  3 girls two months ago, just two blocks from our prison in a quaint suburban community. Maybe it was a lot of things, but I immediately felt I needed to stay. While I stared intensely at the mirror, debating if I wanted to start taking pictures or ask buddy if he wants to wait in our car, I began a lecture to my prisoners about speaking to strangers. It is a lecture they know well, even if they don't understand it completely. 

With the lecture complete, buddy's warden arrives. And she begins talking to the 'stranger'. They know each other.  Stranger is not a stranger. Realization kicks in that I have become "that" dad. I have justified it to myself that I did the right thing. At least I did not make a scene, and what really is the harm of sitting in our transport vehicle a few minutes?  

I am comforted by the notion that 'it takes a village', but am I installing fear into my prisoners and subjecting them to the fears of a potentially helicopter parent?  I guess this is the world we live in unfortunately-- or so I tell myself. Gone are the days when I, at the same age as my prisoners, would 'disappear' during summer days with my buddies.  Never worrying about anything other than making sure I was back at my prison by dinner. Hours spent in a local creek or river, at a baseball field, stealing vegetables from the gardens of neighbors for our lunch, bouncing from buddy's home to buddy's home and traveling wherever our bikes took us, within the vast boundaries set by our guards and wardens of course. I feel my childhood was like that of the kids in 'Stand by Me'-- without ever finding a dead kid, of course.  

Am I depriving my prisoner's that experience?

Only time will tell but for now my prisoners, and their buddy, are safe and sound and will live to play another day.