In January 2023, I wrote this here on the blog:
You know how sometimes a person decides to do a crazy big project that’s completely out of their element, and blog as they go, and then publish their adventure in a book? I found my crazy, big, long-term project to write into a book: I’m going to earn my Eagle. Yeah, the Boy Scouts Eagle. Scouts was created for teenage boys, which I most definitely am not. Let’s just be blunt. I’m a 50-year-old woman who is 50 pounds overweight and a total wimp. Not exactly Scout material here. … …
Four years ago [in 2019], at long last, BSA opened enrollment to girls. I was STOKED. My girls could do what I could not! We would have located – or formed – a girls’ troop and registered them immediately, except they didn’t want to do it. … But we have more kids … Last summer on a road trip, we watched the old Disney movie “Follow Me Boys” and our 4th kid – who was now ten (and had been too young at the initial announcement) – said, “I want to do that. Can I be a Scout?” Why, yes you can! As soon as you turn eleven. “I want to earn every merit badge!”
Kid Four went to one meeting by herself with Adam, and came home ECSTATIC about how much fun she had. The whole troop thought this tiny 11-year-old was just the cutest thing ever and were so excited to have her join. The next week, One and Three went along and were looped in immediately, and Five was registered for Cub Scouts because she was not yet old enough for the troop. This was going to be so fun for Adam to do with our girls!
Also, during that month, I learned there are no co-ed troops – they can share a committee, but girl and boy troops are separate entities. A girl troop is required to have at least one female leader at every single weeknight meeting, activity, campout, service project, everything. I was encouraged to register so I could rotate with the other moms for campouts. I said okay, but really, this was for Adam! I would do my own thing of “earning the Eagle” on the side, with the kids teaching me all the knots and whatever, and cheering me on. It was our family joke.
Of course that did not last long. The troop was led by one scoutmaster and two assistant scoutmasters (ASMs) – two men and one woman, Taylor. Taylor pushed hard to recruit me to be an ASM but it felt off – I can’t just walk in and declare myself an ASM, don’t I need to be invited by some higher-up, like the Committee Chair? Yeah, yeah, we’ll get to that. Taylor asked me to cover the Monday night meetings for February because she had to go out of town for work. Fine, no big deal.
Except she never came back. It’s now over a year later, and she never. came. back. She pops up every now and then – she’ll show up at one meeting, tell everyone what to do even though she’s unfamiliar with what’s happening, and then we won’t see her again for 2 or 3 months. So I’ve been the ASM for a year now, kind of. I wasn’t included in any of the scoutmaster meetings or communication for 2023, just Taylor, even though she was never at anything.
There has been a lot – A LOT – of anger and turf war and conflict among the adults. It’s the most bizarre thing ever. Adam and I are here to help and people get mad at us for it – we don’t get it. The scoutmaster was out for a number of weeks to recover from a health issue and Adam offered to step in to assist until he was healthy again. It was all of one month before random people claimed he was trying to “take over” and stirred up a lot of animosity. So Adam literally just stopped going. I could write for a really long time about all of it, but how much of that do I really want on the internet … I’ve done some writing about it but it’s not even in a Google doc with online access. Offline Word only. Needless to say, my scout experience has not been pleasant, and I question regularly why our family is even doing this.
Well, we’re doing Scouts because the program itself is a good thing – Adam and I want our kids to learn the values of servant leadership and integrity, and the outdoor skills certainly don’t hurt and are even pretty fun. I haven’t figured out any memoir outlining yet, or even how I’m going to EARN MY EAGLE!!!! My kids want me to do it. We should get on that.
We are in North Carolina right now – spring break in the Outer Banks. We’ve spent a couple of days going to the Kitty Hawk and Roanoke Island historic sites, both count as field trips for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. So there’s something we’re doing! It’s an Eagle required badge.
The scout activities for 2023:
- April: district camporee for wilderness survival skills – our troop got 2nd place in the competition. Adam was the troop adult lead, all three kids went.
- May: Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (ILST) campout – ILST is supposed to be done at least once a year, and we’re not sure if this troop has ever had it. The campground was fairly close to home, so Adam came during the day and taught it. Henry and I were the overnight leaders.
- June: whitewater rafting – I had my own adult training the same weekend (IOLS), so Adam had to stay home with the kids. We sent the three Scouts off by themselves with other adult leaders and that was … eh … they had fun rafting, but it would have been helpful for one of us parents to be there.
- July: summer camp – it was a really good week! Definitely the best week of the year for the Scouts having a bonding experience and really coming together as a group. My three kids invented a medley of camp songs that they performed at the whole-camp final campfire and it was a hit. I was there the entire week and Taylor showed up for about 36 hours, “I knew Trina was here so I didn’t need to be.” No, you don’t need to show up and do your ASM job at all … *eye roll* One, Three, and Four all came home with four or five merit badges completed – their first ones! They all did art classes. One loved the rifle range. Three knocked out Swimming. And Four did great in archery.
- August: the beach campout – Adam was the adult leader again and it was just too dang HOT to do anything. Even the water temperature in the ocean was getting close to 100 degrees (and did pass that number in Florida).
- September: bike trip campout along the C&O canal – a 15 mile bike ride is one of the options for the Camping merit badge. Two other adults rode it with the scouts, Three was the only one of my kids to go. I went to the campground for the weekend as the backup adult in case something happened, which it did … One of the scouts got sick about halfway through the ride and came back to the campsite, and one of the adults had a family issue and their spouse asked them to come home early. So I stayed the whole time.
- October: due to a large conflict involving one of our kids and a pretty nasty exchange in a meeting, our family took a six-week break. We were persuaded to not quit entirely – which we definitely considered – because the adult in question was moved to a different position. It would be safe to return.
- November: the Cub Scout recruitment campout, which wasn’t much of one because it was the Caudles and just a couple of other scouts, and a couple of Cubs. It was also in the dark, because it was after the daylight savings time change. Fortunately there was a small lodge where we could hang out after dark, when we still had four hours to go before bedtime. We played card games to pass the time.
- December: historic ships in Baltimore harbor and a walk-through of Fort McHenry. They got to sleep on one of the ships! Three and Four went with a trusted adult leader, Adam and I couldn’t go because it was the same weekend as the Christmas music program at church, and we were singing.
Ranks: One and Four finished 2023 at the Tenderfoot rank, and just signed off with Second Class. One turns 18 in May and will age out – the goal is to get to First Class before then. All the skills ranks accomplished!
Three rushed all the way to First Class with one of her friends and they got it together in August. They both ranked up to Star in January. I think she needs to slow down a little and make sure she’s actually learned the skills instead of passing them off quickly and forgetting them.
2024 has its own set of fun challenges – that’s another blog post.