Scout Parents on ScoutmasterCG Archive

When is it time to find a new Troop?

Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Before you waste anymore time trying to fix what is wrong with a Scout Troop look around and see if you can’t find one that is a better fit. Put aside the question of dedication, misplaced loyalty and grim determination and look at what the problems are doing to your son.

People of good will sometimes find themselves at odds with one another in schools, churches, community organizations and Scout Troops. Not everyone gets along all the time.

Choosing a Troop

Sat, 19 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A recent email :

My son and I are blessed to live in an area with a good deal of quality Troops nearby. We visited seven Troops, two of them twice for a total of nine visits. This was an invaluable experience and really allowed my son and I to get a great insight into the Units in our area and decide what we wanted in a Troop and how we would fit in and be a blessing to the Troop, as well. We finally found what we feel is the best Unit in the county, one that, in our minds, is head and shoulders above the rest. This Unit has very strong leadership – two of the dozens of registered adults have over 45 years of experience at this Unit Additionally, they have a large wooded property with a Scout Hut, a campground, a shooting range, a very nice fire ring theater, trailers full of equipment, a fleet of canoes, and free use of a privately-owned reservation with amenities. The Unit has also graduated 63 Eagle Scouts since forming in 1963 with six earning rank in one recent year.

Happy (Scout) Mother's Day!

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Before the ceremony a couple of weeks ago I asked the Eagle candidates and their parents to step into a side room for a minute.

I hand each family a velvet covered box. “We’ll have mom practice pinning the Eagle medal on their son’s left pocket flap first” I announce.

Three moms pick up an Eagle medal and pin it on their son. “It’s not as easy as it looks, is it?” one laughs as her husband bends down to pick up a fumbled pin back off the carpet. “No, it isn’t,” I reply “that’s why we have this little rehearsal.” Not as easy as it looks? That’s an understatement. The years that led up to this moment started when a little boy came home excitedly talking about something called Cub Scouts. From that point on it was a blur of den meetings, pack meetings, overnights and trips. A tear wiped away as that little boy stood on a stage and got his first badge, and his second, and his tenth. All of them have to be sewn somewhere , but before too long he’d outgrown his shirt and they all had to be sewn on again. Boy Scouts?

Scout Parent Struggles With Letting Go

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Every Scout parent struggles with letting go as their child grows up. From the Swedish Scouting is awesome! blog.

Thoughts on how Scouting helps parents understand letting go so children can become adults: One of the aims of scouting is to make young people independent and self sufficiant. We do a great job for the most part, but it is so difficult to let go and let them try their wings and fly unsupervised. At the moment I’m reading the Famous Five books aloud to my 10-and-a-half-year-old son. Enid Blyton is so scouting: The children are resourceful, brave and have great social ethos (even if they’re very middle-class and sometimes stinking perfect) My son loves the books where they are out camping on their own, or as in this last book, with a supervising adult who lets them do what ever because he trusts them to do the right thing. The Famous Five always stay 11-15, which isn’t true for our scouts, who grow from 6-year-old Beavers to 15-year-olds with spots and hormones. As leaders we’re their to lead them in the right direction, to guide them gently into adulthood, and to safely let them try their wings and fly under supervision. But when is it time to let them fly on their own? My soon 13-year-old daughter is tall for her age, has the vocabulary of a 25-year-old and lots of integrity. She is a dream, and a nightmare. All parents want their children to be independent and self sufficient. She is that, and she wants to fly on her own.

Scouting With Your Son

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Being the parent of a Scout and a Scouter at the same time, can be one of the most enriching and memorable times you’ll spend together.

Naturally there will be some difficult times but we can avoid letting them derail the experiences for ourselves and our sons if we prepare for them.

Characteristics that make a good parent and a good Scouter are similar but we are not going to impose the same expectations or authority we have for our own children on our Scouts.

Working with Scout Parents on Bobwhite Blather

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

in Scout Parents Frank Maynard is a blogging troop committee chairman, he recently published this excellent article outlining how to work with Scout parents; Parents who aren’t as involved in Scouting as you are sometimes don’t understand the program as well, and can see a unit working normally as being dysfunctional.

Friction can also develop among parents, or even between boys, and the people “in charge” are looked to for a solution. “Why isn’t my Jimmy getting to Second Class any faster?” is a typical complaint, or “How come you didn’t tell Billy that he needed to bring his handbook to the meeting?”

The Twain Effect

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

in Scout Parents When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

Attributed to Mark Twain* I have watched many fathers wince as their sons publicly shunned them and sons wince as their fathers publicly acknowledged them. The ‘Twain Effect’ is immediately recognizable to those parents who have been through it.