Over the weekend I celebrated with the girls from our Girl Scouts Troop for the year we had. They were amazing Girls and this day was for them to have fun as a reward for the awesome work they did to make not only their Cookie Sale a success but also as a Troop in learning and bonding with each other. Yet as I stood there behind my camera watching their smiling faces and thinking of the past 2 years we’ve been together I kept wondering “Is This Goodbye?”
Nearly 3 years ago I started the search for an activity outside of dance to help keep my daughter active. I had been a Girl Scouts as a child but never went any further than about 6 months of participation. I loved every moment of it and knew it would be something my Girlies would love as well. When my oldest daughter started Kindergarten and came home with a Girl Scout flyer I was so excited to get her all signed up.
Our first year was amazing! We had so much fun together and she blossomed with the added interaction with other girls. The Troop did so many things with the Girls and often Volunteered to help. We carved pumpkins, marched in parades, cooked, baked cookies, learned about the world around us and most importantly made friendships we all valued. I watched as my daughter changed from the chatty but reserved little girl who had a hard time making true friend into a still chatty but friendlier and happier girl. I couldn’t have been more proud or happy to be a part of ‘our’ troop.
When my youngest Girlie joined this past year, I was so excited to begin to share the Girl Scout experience I had with my oldest with her as well. Yet this year things were going to be a bit different. This year we would be 2 Daisies And A Leader. That’s right, instead of simply Volunteering as a Parent I had taken on the task of being a Co-Leader after our main leader had to move out of state. I signed up hoping that we would have all of (and maybe a few new) experience we had the year before.
After about 3 months, I began to realize that having an awesome set of Girls doesn’t always mean things will go smoothly. Our Troop was active but not nearly as much as before, our meetings were often canceled, and I watched as my youngest daughter tried to understand why her little blue vest was still empty when her sister’s was nearly full by this time last year.
Once we realized we had issues we tried our best to isolate the girls of the Troop from it’s impact. We went through the process of reorganizing the troop and tried to go forward. Yet by this time the year was nearly done. The entire experience had left a ‘bad taste’ in my mouth and left me wondering what my future with the Troop would be.
Still this day, this weekend was about celebrating the good things we had this year. Today was a fun day! One for moments and memories to be made of their year as Daisies and Brownies.
We fought through the bad and despite everything our little Troop has been through they are walking away with their little blue and brown vests all filled in, smiles on their faces and their futures bright. Is that future with me? Will my Girls continue their Girl Scout journey? I wasn’t I’m still not sure. As a Volunteer I still want to believe in what the Girl Scouts stand for and as a Mom I have to do what is best for my Girls. So, as I watched MY Girls and MY Troop laugh, hug and enjoy this day I knew even if this was goodbye My Girls Scouts, Our Journey and Our Future would forever be impacted less by the bad but more so by the good we had shared together.
Have you ever had any bad experiences in your children’s activities?
How did you handle them?
Did you continue to participate or move on to something different?
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20 thoughts on “Is This Goodbye? My Girl Scouts – Our Journey, Our Future…”
Sorry to hear you had to go through that. I was an active Girl Scout from kindergarten to grade school, not so much in high school though but I truly enjoyed the fun and learning as well as the camping trips. It's a great idea to involve your girls in such activities and I really hope you can figure out ways to continue them. All the best! 🙂
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Thanks Rea, it was a really stressful situation but I am glad my Girlie\’s had the chance to end their year in a good way and with good memories. We are still deciding if we will try to continue next year with a different Troop. Have a great weekend 🙂
I'm currently leading the troop because my daughter loves Girl Scouts and the previous leader is burned out. Taking it over is A LOT of work. I think it's sad that especially at the present time, the biggest drawback to these activities is finding appropriate adults to volunteer. Good people aren't always available and available people aren't always good.
It's interesting that you have mixed levels in your troop and the other commenters have even more levels mixed. Scouting is really popular in our area. Our troops have just girls that are in the same grade level meaning we have two separate daisy troops for kindergarteners and first graders. Brownies are split into the 2nd & 3rd grade troops. I think having so many combined would be very confusing and difficult to manage. The way our troops are set up your two girls wouldn't be in the same troop.
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You\’re right! The people who volunteer aren\’t always qualified or don\’t always have the best intentions.
We had mixed levels because we were a Military Troop and we wanted to keep our girls together as a family. They had become good friends so when 2 or 3 bridged at once we decide to become a Daisy & Brownie Troop. It really wasn\’t too difficult because at the time we had 3 active Leaders so we each took a level (1st yr Daisy, 2nd yr Daisy and Brownie) and taught them then at the end of the meeting we would come together for snacks and crafts. Our Girls loved it and so did the parents because they didn\’t have to move or get used to a brand new troop after bridging.
I tried to sign up my daughter for Daisy's this year – but although we had 9 girls, none of us moms could take the time to train and be the leader. We were all surprised that it took one of us to step up and do that. It seems like a huge commitment and I, like most moms, have plenty on my plate. But my 7yo really wants to do scouts and I promised her that I would *try* to make that happen next year, even if I have to step up and be the leader (yikes!!). We'll see. Thank you for sharing your honest story.
Yes, it does take that one mom but that is definitely a huge commitment and a lot more work than most realize. That was part of the reason I only agreed to be a Co-Leader, I didn\’t want to commit to more than I could handle. I am still in the decision phase as to whether we will continue our Girl Scout Journey…thanks so much for coming by and sharing your story as well 🙂
I had almost the same experience this past year with Girl Scouts. I had volunteered to help the troop as a co-leader when my daughter moved up to Brownies. I was very surprised when I was assigned to work with the Daisies, since we have a combined troop of both levels. I wanted to participate with my daughter, not work with the younger girls. Communication was horrible between the main leader and me, I even offered to be the treasurer but told her I wasn't going to continue because she was spending money without talking with me or even knowing our account balance. I resigned from helping the troop towards the end of the year. My daughter still wants to participate and I will support that, but I won't offer to volunteer anymore with such a mess. Now the troop will be Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors and it is just a crazy mess.
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Oh my goodness! You have almost describe my situation exactly. It is as if everything changed when I became more than just a Parent Volunteer. Perhaps I should take a cue from you and simply return to that role and still let me Girls participate. I know it is a decision I will have to make by the end of the summer. I have thought that I will ask them if they want to continue or not as well. It is something my oldest loved but right now my youngest has a bit of a bad memory because of all the confusion. I guess only time can tell at this point. Thanks so much for sharing your story. It is an encouragement to know that you were able to continue on despite a bad experience.
I'm sorry. I'm sure the three of you will figure out what's best. Neither my daughter's nor I have been in the Girl Scouts, so I don't know much about it…. but we know COOKIES 🙂
It sounds like there was a lot of fun, in the beginning. Plus, I've seen some of your fun posts in the past 🙂
Similar situations have happened to us, the eldest kid joins something first {for obvious reasons, oldest} and she has so much fun, the program is fun and full of parent involvement. Then fast forward a few years, my youngest daughter joins in, and the program is not the same and less parent involvement.
Wishing you all the best-
XOXO
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Yeah, I'm giving myself and the girls until end of summer to decide if we want to continue in smaller roles or not. Haha! I think we all know the COOKIES 😀 Yes, we did have a lot of fun but it was towards the end when all the confusion and stuff took over and the fun happened less often.
Exactly. It is like the entire situation was different than when we started and I know that can happen when leadership changes. I am still in decision mode as of today…LOL Thanks for coming by Lovie, always happy to have you visit xoxo
Girl we had a bad experience in church. My kids names were taken off of the door to their classroom where all the other kids names are and they had no clue where to go. To this day my kids names are STILL not on their doors.
Oh No! That's not good at all. I pray something changes. I don't think kids should feel the effects of anything going on in an adult situation. It's just not fair.
I was a Camp Fire leader and we had fun in my little troop. Sadly, it was short lived because the moms thought I was a babysitting service.
Yeah, luckily our parents were as much a part of our Troop as the girls! That must have been a tough.
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I was the Girl Scout leader for one year. It was when my daughter was a little older 10/11. The only girls in my troop where from families with issues and they were not well behaved. That was our last year in Girl Scouts. I don't think my daughter enjoyed it anymore than I did.
It sounds like you had some great years though and perhaps you and your daughters can have a meeting before next year and decide what you want to do as a family.
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There are so many ways that being a Leader can become way more than you sign up for. Thankfully our Girls were all great and the parents were very helpful in making sure they listened to us as Leaders.
The situation we were in had more to do with the Administration of the Troop and although there have been changes made I am not sure I want to return to a leadership position. We do plan on sitting our Girls down and letting them have a say in the decision when the time comes.
Just found your blog from the social saturday link up! I'm a few days late, but hey…better late than never, right? haha. Excited to be following along via Bloglovin' 🙂 woohoo!
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Hi Whitney! Thanks so much for coming by to visit me 😀 Yes, better late than never. I will head over to visit you tonight.