May 8th, Parents Day in Korea, is coming up.
According to Wikipedia, "In the Republic of Korea, Parents' Day (어버이 날) is celebrated on May 8. Usually, one gives a carnation with presents to his/her parents and/or sings the Parents' Day song."
Yellow paper carnation. I remember painstakingly perfecting two carnations in art class at school. My clumsy fingers would be slathered with glue, catching delicately thin tissue paper on finger tips, bits tearing here and there...the end results were never good enough. Each layer would be somewhat lopsided, the green wire stem dirtied from my glue-paper smeared fingers, my lower lip bitten from concentration, I was so desperate to present my parents with at least half decent paper carnations to make up for the lack of obviously prodigious talents.
My parents are not perfect parents. Hell, last time I spoke with my dad was almost 20 years ago.
Yet, in my memory, I have an image of them both proudly clipping the dirty disproportionate yellow paper carnations to their equally disproportionately wide shirt collars (hey, it was the 70's).
In honor of that memory, I would like to offer up a $50 CafePress gift certificate (to purchase wonderful Kimchi Mamas stuff) to one winner of Kimchi Parent Moment contest. If there's a tie, I might split it into two $25 gift certificates.
RULES:
1. Respond to this post or email [email protected] with your entry by April 25th. I will post a reminder now and then.
2. NO MORE than 15 sentences. A little bit of writing exercise here - despite the fact that I tend to ramble on myself, I believe that less is more. Unless you are Metrodad. Then, FEWER is more. Plus, I am a single mom with a day job. 15 sentences per entry are all I can handle.
3. Kimchi Parent Moment can be about your parents, your own parenting moment, your spouse's, and, yes, even about your in-laws. It can be funny... or poignant. As long as it is related to being a parent within the context of Korean culture, it will be eligible. For example, if it has something to do with lutefisk at Christmas dinner, it wouldn't be eligible. However, if the said lutefisk met kimchi and parented a kimfisk baby, yes.
4. I might throw in a bonus point for those who can write about heartfelt Kimchi Parent moment from the dreaded Korean mother-in-law.
5. Most of all, have fun! Even if you don't win, if there are great runner-ups, I might even post some of them to share.
-Mama Nabi