Our entire family is involved in the scouting program. I have 15 years of experience leading Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. My husband is still involved, both as an Assistant Scout Master for Troop 608, District Representative, and leader of the religious emblem for our church. We have four children; three Eagle Boy Scouts, and one Gold Girl Scout.
In one way, scouting is a lot of work, but in another way, it makes my job as a mother much easier.
I'm the youngest child in my family, which means that I didn't grow up tending to other children. When I became a mother, I relied on other people to tell me, or show me, how it is done. Learning how to change a diaper didn't take long, but it was just the first in a long series of questions that all began with the word "how". I wished that someone had written a handbook that would show me how it is done.
That's what scouting did for me. The basic purpose of scouting is to take a boy who's never been to a meeting, and step by step, badge by badge, get him ready to lead the troop himself. The basic purpose of parenting is to take a baby, and day by day, grade by grade, get him ready to enter the work force. In that way, scouting and parenting have a lot in common.
One of the benefits of scouting is that you never have to say "you're not big enough". I'm 5' 11" now, and was always a head taller than the other kids in my class. It used to drive me crazy to hear adults say "you're not big enough". Just how big do you want me to be?
In scouting, each skill is presented in the handbook, when the child should be old enough, or big enough, to handle it. So when my boys asked why they couldn't have a pocket knife, I didn't say "you're not big enough." I said "Where's your whittlin' chit?"
And if you read the book, you'll know just when it's time to have a talk about a particular subject, whether it's religion, or values, or money or something else.
Those talks are important. It shows your child that you can do more than just say "no" and "turn off that noise!” It opens a channel for communication, because if he doesn't communicate with you, he won't get credit for it. And it gives you an opportunity to teach your child what your values are.
That's the best part about scouting. The leader does the badge requirements that we all agree on; things like obeying the law, traffic safety, state history, and memorizing a pledge. You, at home, teach your child the things that we don't agree on; things like money, life style, religion, and values. Scouts accepts that there are different answers to these questions, and allows you to tell your child which answer you think is best.
Scouting makes me feel better about my role as a parent, not only because it shows me when my child is old enough to do something, but how to show it to him. It also makes my children more comfortable with me.
For instance, one of the Cub Scout activities is to go shopping for groceries, and learn how to spend money, how to judge a good value, and how to make good choices. Yes, it took a little longer to shop that day, but the benefit was that once I showed my kids how much money I had to spend, and how much groceries cost, they stopped whining for candy at the checkout lane.
And as the kids have progressed from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, I have reaped other benefits as well. Both of my older boys can cook. They learned, as we all do, that you have to put all the ingredients in if you want it to taste good, and that if the directions call for five charcoal briquettes, fifteen briquettes won't make it cook three times as well, and that l l/3 does not mean eleven thirds. When you're camping, and you have to eat your mistakes because there isn't anything else, you learn those lessons REAL well.
Moms have to get their children to sports programs, dance lessons, scout meetings, and such, which can make for a hectic day. When my daughter's dance lessons were from 5:30 to 6:00, and I had fifteen minutes at home before I had to get back in the car and take the boys to scouts. Since they knew how to cook, making dinner on Monday night became one of their chores. All I had to do was thaw the meat, and give them directions for something very simple. We ate a lot of hamburgers, but at least we got to eat.
But it was Hurricane Opal that was the real proving ground.
While other people didn't know what to do, we approached the aftermath as just an unscheduled camping trip and service project rolled into one. We cooked on a camp stove in our back yard, served hot coffee to the crews that came by, and helped neighbors patch their roof. No one complained because that’s just what scouts do.
We aren't the only ones who have reacted that way. A friend of ours is in the Reserves and responded to a similar disaster. He asked the crowd of people if any of them had ever been in scouts. If they said yes, he made them "patrol leaders" in charge of a particular project such as digging a latrine or setting up a cooking area. All of the former scouts knew how the system worked. It was a common understanding among strangers. They knew the drill and were prepared to pitch in and help out.
School Night for Scouting in the Esca-Rosa District will take place between Aug. 15 and Sept. 30. Representatives will be visiting every public and private school, handing out fliers and holding informational meetings. If you get a paper announcing scout night at your school or church, don't just look at it and throw it away. You could be throwing away the best parenting class ever written.
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