The Power of Punctuation

Not only am I a homeschool mom, but I've also taught 6-12 grade English in a Christian school. Teaching the same language in six different classes every day has a way of etching the grammar and punctuation rules permanently into my brain.

It's to be expected that my children also excel in English to some extent, which is why little things like commas are so important.  I have six children, and I love them all equally. I think they know that, but occasionally they will compete with each other to try and get me to claim one as a favorite. My typical response would be, "You're my favorite Nick."

Nick will immediately declare that he heard a comma as in, "You're my favorite, Nick." The others will argue that there was no comma, and I was simply stating that, of all the Nicks that I know, he is my favorite Nick. About that time I'll turn to Joel and say, "You're my favorite Joel."

Joel, of course, assures me that he heard the comma, and that I shouldn't worry because he'll never let on to his siblings that he's really my favorite.

Naturally I would never dream of encouraging this competition. Or would I? One evening during a family game, I went to each of my children in turn and quietly whispered, "Don't tell anyone, but you're my favorite." It worked really well except that apparently I didn't whisper as quietly as I thought I did. Once they realized I was telling everyone the same thing that family night took an ugly turn.

At any rate, while the identity of my true favorite child may be in question, at least they're getting a good lesson in punctuation. I'll leave you with two thoughts that show you how truly important punctuation can be:

P.S. If you're reading this, you're my favorite.