Scoutmaster Podcast 269

I'm Vince Hurnley and I am a Scoutmaster with Troop 73 in Indianapolis, Indiana. This edition of the Scoutmaster podcast is sponsored by backers like me. And now for you, Scoutmaster,

This is kind of hopeful news If you're an older person like me, that that you could be on the cutting edge of culture without even knowing it. Because if you've ever made soup over a campfire and then gone to taste it and kind of burned your lips on it, you have made hipster soup.

That's right, Hipster soup, because you ate it before. it was cool.

OK then, Well, they, they, they can all be fantastic. If you've got a better one, send it in to me.

Hey, this is podcast number two sixty nine.

Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. This is Clarke Green. and hey, we're back after a short hiatus for Memorial Day. The podcast is well rested and ready to go, I'm sure you'll be happy to know. So let's get right into the mailbag. I heard from John since our last podcast.

He said you'll remember me and my son from a post I helped with last year because my son is diagnosed with Apzberger's syndrome, and I shared with you some of the challenges and triumphs we were going through. I wanted to send you this picture of the both of us looking over the wall at Fillmont on Mount Baldy. It was a tremendous experience for us and it was a transformative experience for him. He's now a life scout and he's thinking about his Eagle project. Well, John, that is wonderful news and I really appreciate the picture. John goes on to say: I'm writing now just to let you know that I am beginning to realize how hard it is to focus on the needs of your scouts and not let that scouter's ego come into play, but to trust the program.

In three weeks I'm off to summer camp as the adult in charge And, while others may see special needs scouts as a burden, I'm looking on it as a huge opportunity for our scouts to see beyond themselves and support their fellow scouts. It's an opportunity for our special needs scouts to have wonderful experiences that will help them in life. Nobody told me that this one hour a week commitment to scouting would be one extraordinary quality and personally challenging hour a week. Well, John, I think that's a pretty good way to put it. Scouting has tremendous transformative potential for us as adults and for our scouts as youth. It's just a wonderful thing And I really appreciate you getting in touch with me, John Heard from Josh Kamoli, who's an old, old scouting buddy, who read our post this past week on the blog.

that is a collection of summer camp resources, And he says these are awesome. My oldest is preparing for his first week at camp this summer And my wife and I are preparing ourselves. I am going to forward this to her so she can read it to great stuff, Thank you. The fact that I knew Josh and worked with him when he was still a teenager and now his son is old enough to go to camp for his first year kind of gives me a little bit of pause to figure out how old I am. But it's wonderful to hear from you, Josh, And I do appreciate it And I'm glad that we can be of some help to you, And we're going to talk a little bit about this a bit later on in the podcast too. We had a couple of live chats over the past two weeks And, in addition to all the wonderful folks who are our frequent flyers and check in on the live chat, we talked to Mike Franks, who's a Scoutmaster and cub master at Troop and Pack 7082 in Grant, Alabama.

Dave Kish, who is a Scoutmaster for Troop 54 in New Jersey, checked in, as did Michael Durbin, who's the cub master for Pack 205 in Nixon, Missouri. Dave Peters was on the chat and he is a cub master and assistant Scoutmaster. Rich Kubiak is the Scoutmaster of a brand new Boy Scout Troop in Detroit, Michigan. and Eric Murphy also was on the chat And he's the Scoutmaster of a one year old scout troop, Troop 61 in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was great to have everybody on, And those live chat sessions are announced on the Facebook and Twitter feeds for scoutmastercgcom, So keep an eye open for them. Come on over to scoutmastercgcom and join us.

We have a lot of fun. And before we go any further, let me take the time to ask a favor, because I need your help. I started blogging and podcasting back almost 10 years ago now And I didn't plan any of this.

I mean, I hear from a lot of folks every week and it's really heartening to know that I'm able to lend a hand. What I'm asking in return is that you support the blog and the podcast by becoming a scoutmastercgcom backer. Now, to do this, go to scoutmastercgcom, click the support link at the top of the page and you'll find a number of options. I'm making a voluntary one time subscription payment to help me keep things up and running.

I want to take a moment to personally thank Shane Stillwell, Michael Iovino, Aaron Sloshman, Vince Hurnley, Robert Kerrigan, David Wilkes, Ron Blaisdell, Suzanne Veliestra and Matthew Dunham, who've become backers since our last podcast. Once again go to scoutmastercgcom and become a backer this week and I'll be sure to thank you during our next podcast. Well, in this podcast, in scoutmastership in seven minutes or less, we're going to talk about how parents can prepare themselves for summer camp and then we've got some email questions to answer and that will fill up the remainder of the podcast. So let's get started, shall we?

Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less.

You know I have seen that worried look. so many times It happens just after parents have brought their scout down to camp and they have gone in and they see the tent that he's going to be staying in and they kind of look around a little bit and they look at me and the other adults are going to be staying there during the week and they kind of reluctantly start dragging their feet up the trail and they look a little uncertain that they're ready to do this themselves. Most of the time the scouts. they're not even thinking right Because they're at camp, they're happy, they're there with their buddies and they're looking forward to a great week. But parents sometimes, hey, this can catch them by surprise because they concentrate a lot on preparing their scout to go to camp but they may be unaware of the fact that, hey, this is going to hit them a little bit. They are leaving their child at a camp in the care of people who they may know, and really well, and maybe not know really well, and they may feel a little uncomfortable turning over full time care of their child to somebody who they have just gotten to know and they're going to worry about what kind of food the scout will be eating and who will be looking after daily concerns like clean clothes and taking showers and making sure they eat and making sure they don't get hurt. And they kind of wonder if the older scouts are going to be nice or if they're going to tease them. And hey, you know, if you've had this experience, I really don't have to explain it to you. I mean, what happens if you take your child to camp and they just don't like camp? Can they call home or can you check in on them? Oh, it can be really, really anxious, And I have seen this anxiety in parents of scouts headed to camp for the first time for many, many years.

Many of those parents find the experience more difficult than their children do, And if they wait for the first contact from camp, the first letter home, they don't find a whole lot of solace in that either, because it may sound pretty miserable even though a scout's having the time of his life.

So the question then becomes: how can we scouts help parents prepare for how they're going to feel once they've dropped their scouts off at camp and returned home for a very, very quiet and sometimes anxious week? Being separated from your child for this length of time is a new challenge for every parent, even though many others have gone through it before and try to be as supportive as possible.

You know it really comes down to the way that you end up feeling and acknowledging that this causes most parents at least a little bit of anxiety and distress, that it's a normal part of your child growing up, that it's temporary and you're going to feel better about it is going to help.

As somebody who's gone to summer camp for decades, I understand that most scouts, especially younger ones will experience some level of homesickness and they're going to experience some ups and downs because camp is challenging and it ought to be. It's a great challenge for them. But what you need to understand as a parent, is that his fellow scouts and the scouters that are with him and the camp staff are all working hard to make this challenge a positive experience, And scouts get a lot out of it year after year after year. While you're concentrating on getting your scout ready to go to camp, prepare yourself too.

Here's some ways that you can do just that. The first one sounds pretty easy to understand, but it bears a little explanation, and that is first of all, as a parent. think positively.

The overwhelming percentage of scouts have a typically great time at summer camp. They absolutely thrive on it and they come home happy. Your positive attitude about that is important, because if you're going to be anxious about it and you're going to worry about it, you're going to communicate that to them during the preparations. whether you like it or not, they're going to kind of get that message.

So, instead of discussing your worries or how much you're going to miss them or you don't know how you're going to deal with this week, talk about the new experiences that your scout will have at camp and all the positive potential involved. Now, anxiety usually comes from something that we don't know about or understand.

So make sure to ask the scouts who are going to camp with your scout all the questions you like- And there are no silly questions, Really there are none.

If you have a concern or an anxiety or a worry about exactly what's going to happen at camp, get one of the scouts who's going and sit down and ask them all of those questions. Get them to explain things to you and it's going to make you feel better. It's always better to ask than to worry, And I have talked with a lot of parents sending their scout down to camp for the first time who are concerned that I'm going to think they're silly or they're overreacting or that they're asking questions that I haven't heard before.

It goes a long, long way If you can sit down, be patient with a parent and do your best to answer all of the questions that they may have. Now, as a parent, you need to understand and respect the way that your scout will be communicating with you while they're at camp. Now, in the age of cell phones and things, you know, it's going to depend a lot upon the way that the scouts who are taking your scout to camp are going to work within that technology.

Will they be writing letters home? Will the letters get home in time? Will you be able to check in with the camp or with the scouter? Look, if you're really anxious about this and you're anxious about being out of touch with your scout for a long period of time like this, talk to the scouter about it and see what you can do to set up a communication plan so that you can check in with the scouter or the scout and realize that that's important both to your state of mind at home and to your scout's state of mind at camp. And then, finally, my suggestion to you as a parent: if you are sending your scout off to camp, plant something wonderful to do while they're away.

You may have siblings at home that you need to look after. You have your regular daily routine that you're going to follow and everything. Take advantage of the little bit of freedom that this is going to afford you and make some plans. It'll be great. So I understand that. look, I know when parents are anxious about these types of things and I don't laugh it off. I don't think you're being silly, I don't think you're being childish, because this is a big challenge, not only for your scout, but it can be a very big challenge for parents too.

Once again, think positively And, as you're preparing your scout to go to camp, talk about all the wonderful things that are going to happen and the wonderful potential and possibilities of the week at camp. Try and stay away from telling them how much you're going to miss them or how worried you're going to be. Ask the scouts who are going to camp with your scout all the questions that you like, because it's always better to know than to worry about something that you're not quite too sure about. Understand and plan the way that you're going to be able to communicate with your scout- And, once again, that's a great question to ask the folks who are going to camp with them. And, finally, take advantage of the fact that you're going to have a little bit of freedom that week too, and plan something great. My experience over the past couple of three decades means anything.

What's going to happen is, at the end of that week of scout camp, your scout's going to come home feeling confident, having had a great experience and you're going to see that in them and see the value of this experience both for them and for you as a parent