If you’ve been reading the comments, you may have encountered the term “PK.” It stands for preacher’s kid. (I only learned this myself about a year ago, so I thought it was worth explaining.) “Daniel” features three preacher’s kids, and during the season, all three will have or, perhaps more accurately, create their share of problems. Okay, maybe more than their share of problems.
This has gotten me thinking about a friend of mine who is an ordained Presbyterian minister. She has decided not to work in a congregation until her children–the youngest of whom has just started school–are a good bit older. (This isn’t a thread about whether mothers should work outside the home, so if you feel the urge to go there, please don’t.) It was her contention that the nature of a pastor’s job made it very difficult to devote yourself to your kids. She was refering, in part, to all of the night meetings and weekend activities that come with the territory. But she also said it was very difficut to know with sufficient certainty that you could “be there” for your children when it was your job to “be there” for maybe a couple of hundred other families.
I am wondering what PKs (and Ps for that matter) think about this. Aside from the fact that you were expected to be the best behaved child in the world, was there enough of your Dad or Mom to go around? I’d also be interested in knowing whether there is an sociological or psychological reserch on this issue, or whether we have to be content to swap anecdotes.
Ed. note: the first two comments on this posting–both from parents of PKs–are among the most compelling we’ve had.