Finally a Scout- The long journey!

Readers, it has been several years that J. has waited to be a full-fledged Scout.

 

 

He has now been one for a few months and I have some time to think about the road that led to this magnificent accomplishment and record J's first real SCOUT ACT.
Or should I say REAL hard.
(and no it wasn't the 12 mile hike they took.)

 

The other day he returned home from one of his Scouting nights and exclaimed in exhaustion:

 

"MOM!"

 

"We (as in the mere 11 years olds) just moved a couple's stuff onto a moving truck!"

 

Me: I thought you guys were going to go over getting ready for the Scout Camp Out.

 

J: "Chh! I know! We did too. But there was a couple that needed help and asked THE SCOUTS- US- to help! Our leader told them we would do it!"

 

J's countenance reflected the evening's hard work. His shirt was untucked and he was tired.

 

It had been a hot evening and he'd worn a normal shirt with his new one hastily thrown on and tucked into long pants with the belt loops. 

Tucking in a shirt for J. is on par with me wearing full fledged nylons for three hours of church.

(Remember, I'm a potato shape now- mixing nylons and pototoes is not pretty)
 

His core temperature had to have cooked going up and down the apartment stairs and into the truck with all his layers and then a kerchief and slide around his neck like a tie or noose.

 

He embellished the evening's events and the circumstances. I listened and then, I broke it to him, Readers. I told him the truth about scouting and why he had to learn all he did for all those years that he pined away at wanting to be in a forest of pine trees back packing. 

 

Me: "Guess what."

 

J downing a tall glass of water:

 

 "What?"

 

Me: "All those years of preparing in cub scouts is basically to prepare you to move people. And usually people that live in an apartment and have lots of steps because they live on the third floor."

 

J: "Move people?"

 

Me: "Yes. In fact, if you decide to serve a mission, it pretty much will be the same. A lot of moving people, cleaning people's houses, cars, pulling weeds, mowing and doing yard work on lawns or areas of land that have been untouched for possibly years. Oh,  you might teach them the gospel- while sitting on the floor or ground. "

 

I felt like I was breaking some sort of news , like Santa Clause was not true or something far fecthing.

 

Jaden sat there.

 

So I took advantage of the time to remind him of another event that is in the near future that will give

give him opportunities to do more service in the community, our neighborhood, our ward, and our church.

 

"You will eventually get into young mens...

 

(in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this is what the next step is in his life. He will turn 12 and it is ceremoniously the time that he will receive what we call the Aaronic Priesthood and he will pass the sacrament.)

 

AND

 

do more service projects for people that could have a lot of things you will have to lift.

 

Or visit the sick, and the afflicted in nursing homes or homeless.

 

 And they may look, act, talk, or do things way differently than you.

In fact, if you choose to serve The Lord, you will move even MORE people."

 

Readers, he honestly had a heart to heart with me on this because he had been under the impression that he was now able to hike, camp, make fires, and essentially learn how to survive in the wilderness.

 

He has spent hours earning money (with me right there helping him earn and learn up until just last summer) so he could buy that new tent.

 

That money was tithed, a percentage to savings, and an allowance given to me for the help I gave him on occasion.

 

Which money went back to him because I'd stick it in savings.
(like shopping, saving can be addicting. I mean look at all the couponers out there saving like crazy!

 

J  slogged hours and then went to practices or games. Or I had to sub for him if they intervened.

 

J: "You are kidding me."

 

Me: "No." I chuckled. "Tonight you did what a Scout is trained to do-  help!"

 

J. had been led to believe it was all about being prepared, Readers!

In all honesty I was surprised they had this chore so early in his first scouting experience. Truly was glad, of course.

It opened his eyes. Like going onto a college campus would help a child see that there is more to elementary than Jr. High and then graduating High School, that there is a huge campus in some forbidden land that is windy, cold, and a campus so spread out there is no time to gain 15 pounds.

Oh, wait, that is where I went to college. He could choose a sunny climate or go for a trade like becoming an electrician, handy man which is essentially the title for a husband and father.

They sure come in handy.

 

He sat down to the table to talk with me about this new detour of scouting he had come upon like a mama bear in the wilderness.

 I reminded him to remember all that had been done for him. For me. Essentially the 'debt' that each of us had to others.

 

It was hard not to look back on the VERY FIRST months when he'd become of age to enter Cub Scouts.

 

I had been a leader so none of the initial stuff was a shocker- bird feeders, walking a planked board, push-ups. He wanted to move up so badly, we spent hours and days in a row doing everything.

And he didn't even care if it was repeated with his leaders and pals after school!

 

One Sunday we walked all over the neighborhood passing off things that he needed to learn or read and commit to memory from the book.

 

It was Scouts on Steroids, People.

 

And our summers were unknown. Would he be home or at Dad's? So springtime was "Scout time."

We hit it like a crash course so as to earn the badge, learn the thing, and move up.

(we've had some things that I thought he knew how to do cause it was checked off in his book.- like make his bed for a straight month. Now that was a hard one.

 

To any parent and mother facing this daunting challenge of the word, Scout, take heed.

Yes, it is like a rubix cube to look at all the requirements. As a leader I wish I would have read the scout book like a normal book. Not flip through pages and look at the out dated pictures of kids doing things and then look at the little squirts in matching shirts trying to learn the scout motto and stressing out because they just wanted to fool around and joke rather than roll peanut butter in bird seed.

 

Remember that using a coping saw is doable. If you make a mistake, it's just cheap wood.

And all the boys will make a mistake. But they will LOVE YOU for teaching them to build a paddle boat.

 

They also will have no idea how much effort you put into them. Pace yourself. Or reign in your kid when he wants to pass of something all the time. But our situation was different. I had one on one time and one child.

And I had a TON of help.

That was the key.

 

I have to thank the person who got him the shirt and did the initial sewing on of the patches, including his scout troupe number.

 

I.N.V.A.L.U.A.B.L.E

 

Best Gift.

 

Purchasing a book at the local Scout Store for a birthday is also a good idea because most of the time you are doing a birthday celebration and getting those Scout things rounded up (shirt, scarf, belt, book, etc. add up to EXPENSIVE.

Heck, that could be a good baby shower gift. Because then you will have finished reading it by the time they get

 

(It does make it hard to hear that the top dog makes over a million. But I guess if I had to go on that many scouting trips through out the year..... I'd want to be paid too.)

 

Readers, scouts have great leaders (at least J. has. In fact, they have been astounding and are a dying breed.) but they need parent involvement too. Actually they need you In a BIG way.

 

Some kids wait 'til their birthday is in three weeks and a parent frantically calls and asks how to get it all done so the child can earn his Arrow of Light or something. 

 

No, an 'Arrow of Light' isn't a shooting star they have to watch through a telescope to anyone new. 

 

Don't make this mistake!!

 

 

There were hours spent handing out fliers for food drives (me too), learning sign language, Morse code, basic safety drills and athletic drills, different sports learned for the heck of it, (cause J. did most of them in his leisure hours) neighborhoods picked up, library visits on top of regular ones with me, recycle plants visited that we already went to to take the cans he recycled, craft projects,

environmental mottos learned- LEAVE NO TRACE (this was hours long of listening and reading and then doing a poster and teaching his fellow cubbies about how to act in the wilderness and anywhere; Leave a Place Better Than You Found It.), hours spent reading what was "required" in a book that got lost, got found, got grubby and the pages ear worn,

and some real words from another language, MANY hours spent sitting on a cold folding chair each month as funny skits were performed, nervous/proud/bashful/boisterous boys did a different clap or hoorah for a fellow cub scout who earned something, those expensive "somethings" were purchased by a dedicated leader, then sewn *eventually I got the sticky tape*. or pinned to a flap on the shoulder, and placed on a  blue shirt- one that barely fit toward the end and ended up just having to get into the tan scout one that didn't show all his bells and whistles earned-

Oh- don't forget those Pine Wood Derby Days. Luckily, I have the great blessing of men that helped with that part. But the FIRST one was literally so stressful that I dreaded it like college exams. First, the "design" had to be chosen, then cut out.... Yes, it was so intimidating as I didn't take shop class.

Yes, being single made me more intimidated at this task for some reason. It was the male bonding time designated in the history of, well, man. Like when cave men went hunting with spears or something. Maybe they actually just did a lot more cave drawings because it was easier than putting together a small, rock wheeled race wheelbarrow.

Well, the other day my scout told me about the birds that would come to his Gazebo- finches, ------
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Posting this as is. Take or leave it!


 It's on sale!


 Cause I can't recall the birds that are gonna come and I'm tired. I can only recall that he said there is one type that are real Gossips. I did not know this. I should have been a scout. Lucky for me, he is.