Kristina Goes to Church Camp

Friday, Kristina went to Camp Tuttle for the weekend on a Church retreat for kids. Me, Doug and Alex found the weekend to be extremely enjoyable because the drama queen was away. Kristina loved it because she had a great time and was surrounded by new people who had not heard her Ukrainian stories yet. Kristina loves to talk to everyone who will listen to her. She and her accent were now the center of attention for the weekend.
We thought church camp would be a good thing for her: as she would be around kids her own age, to make some new Christian friends and we hoped she would learn some humility. Our biggest challenge with her is trying to convince her that we, as her parents, know what is best for her. Thirteen year old Kristina of course has all of the answers and looks at us like we don't know what we're talking about. During our many talks, she will not answer our questions directly but ask another question to avoid answering us.
When we went to pick her up and she was playing games with the other children. She told her new friends "Good-Bye Guys."
On the way home she cried as she said she missed them. We asked her what she had learned while at camp and she told us it was about honesty. We were glad to hear that, as we had some questions to ask her about finding things in her room that she did not have permission to take .
Kristina had been grounded and we only allowed her to go to church camp to help her and to try to mold her into a better person.
I've read on other blogs, that some of the moms said in some cases, they will not win the mother of the year award, I feel I won't win any awards, ever. Kristina doesn't accept listening to us very well. It amazes us that her teachers speak so highly of her and say she is an extremely respectful student but she can't show any respect at home. We keep telling Kristina that someday we hope she will be grateful for all the opportunities we have given to her, but to her we are not doing anything. We now have a new rule. If Kristina takes something without permission, then something of hers will be taken away and donated. She has taken a step in the right direction this evening. The neighbor that drives Kristina to school each day gave her some money. She had given all the girls in her car pool a little money and she takes them to the store after school so they can spend their money on treats. Kristina has $2.61. Kristina ate an entire bottle of decorative candies for cookies/cupcakes that I use during the holidays. Since she had $2.61 from the neighbor, we asked her what she should do with the money. Kristina told us to keep the money as she wanted to pay back the $3.00 she owed for eating the decorative candies.
We asked her why she had not asked us first for the candies and why she felt she had to take them without permission. She would not answer. There were other things she had taken but we were concerned about her need to still take and hide food. She knows that there is plenty to eat. Alex comments quite often that Kristina eats more than him. So it comes down to the attention thing. How to get more attention? She knows the food thing is annoying and therefore, keeps doing it. Kristina knows her dentist would not approve of her eating candies. Shes had allot of dental work this year and there will be more in 2011.
She had now turned in for the evening after a hot bath and wanted to read the Beeble (as Kristina pronounces it) which was loaned to her from church. As for the rest of us, after putting up our traditional Halloween village, sound effects and all, were are all getting ready to turn in for the day.