Old Age is Hard on Scouts

     I am writing this blog as a plea to the general, cookie buying, public.  I know those cute little girls in the blue and brown Girl Scout uniforms are hard to resist when they ask you to buy cookies.  I know those big doe eyes on a 5 year old make it impossible to say no.  I know because I have one.  I'm glad their cuteness works and you stop to buy a box of cookies even if you don't want it.
     In our troop, we are thankful for every box sold.  I want to ask you, though, please, please, don't pass up the older girls.  Teenagers are hard.  I know, I have one of those, too.  As a troop leader, its even harder to keep the older girls engaged.  They have so much more to do between school work, many after school activities, and having a normal teenage social life.  So, to see them continue to invest in a program that is teaching them to be strong women who will change the world makes my heart soar.  The Biggest One is now a Cadette in Scouts.  She wears the tan uniform, usually with a cat ear headband, and she looks like she is 15, even though she isn't.  She is smart, funny, and driven.  She already has a plan for her life that I wish I had at her age.  This year, she is implementing that plan by going to a special camp where she will start as a councilor in training.  Her plan is, by the time she turns 16, be a junior camp counselor, and at 18, be a Girl Scout camp counselor all through college each summer for her summer job to help pay for books.
     The thing is, this camp is expensive.  Even more so than a normal scout camp.  In fact, most of her activities are more expensive as an older scout.  So each and every one of those boxes of cookies she sells are vitally important to her.  She needs to raise the money to be able to get to her camp, learn more about astronomy with trips to the closest observatory, as she is still trying to decide between astronomy and microbiology as degree and career path (she is leaning toward microbiology as she wants to be able to research lupis and find a cure or treatment that actually works).  Knowing that she needs to sell more, she works harder.  She works with every one of those little doe eyed girls and shows them how to sell cookies.  She teaches and trains them like a champ.  After all, she has been selling since she was a little doe eyed 5 year old.  She is willing to go house to house for hours.  She will work every single booth sale I allow her, in between play practice on weekends and all county band.  Even with all that hard work, she can't sell as many as the cute little girls do.  For some reason, it is easier to say no to the older girls. I guess you think they can take it. The last time she went door to door, she went to street after street, and only sold 5 boxes.  Hours of work for 5 boxes.  She was ready to go out for more, though.  She wants that sale.  Same thing happens at both sales.  I pair her with a little one as often as I can so that the sales are higher for her.  She knows it, too, but she doesn't let it stop her.  I respect that drive, and I wish every one out there would, too.
     So, the next time a girl in a tan uniform knocks on your door, please open it and consider buying a box.  If they are still selling by the time they look like they are about to drive, it means they are strong, dedicated girls who will be the next leaders and game changers of our world.  Consider that dedication, and buy a box, even though they don't have doe eyes, even though they may be as tall or taller than you, and even though they might wear cat ears when they ask.  I promise it means as much if not more than the box you buy from the cute little bitty ones.  Don't stop buying from the cute little ones, either.  I'm just saying, a scout is a scout, and consider your purchase equally.  After all, I have three girls, from the cute little doe eyed one in a blue uniform, to a middle aged (for scouts) girl in the Girl Scout green uniform, up to my oldest in the tan.  She is almost as tall as me, which is another of her life goals, but don't let that stop you.  Buy a box.  Please.  I promise she will say thank you.

If you want to buy any boxes from any of my girls, you can buy from the littlest one here.

You can buy from the middle one (she is pretty cute, too, though I didn't get to talk much about her in this blog) here.

And last, but not least at all, the biggest one here.

No matter who you buy from, what council, what age of girl, I appreciate each of you who buy cookies, and please, don't forget that if you can't eat them, you can treat them to members of the military by donating cookies.  (Cookie donations to the military are also tax deducible if your into that kind of thing!!)

Thanks again, and try the new S'mores cookie.

Go Diego, Go... to my house.

My daughter, the big one, likes to make these terrible animalish noises when she has an attitude problem. Her little humphs drive me insane. They really aren't acceptable in our house at all. I consider it attitude, and nothing different than talking back. I must have told her a million times that same thing. She knows better, but she is a young girl, and honestly, that attitude is just part of her makeup for now. So, she and I go round and round about all the noises.

They started again at supper tonight. As I was telling her that she needed to eat her peas before she got anything else to eat, she started in with the humphs and the mews.

In an effort to change up my pattern of rebuke, this time, I looked straight at her, and said
"You sound like a hurt animal. One of these days, Diego is going to show up at my house, looking for an animal to rescue. He is going to start to follow the sound, and end up here. Looking at our house, wondering what kind of sad animal is inside."

She looked at me with sheer attitude for a split second, like I was crazy, then she started to snicker, trying to hide it, not wanting me to see that she thought i was funny.

"Click the camera is going to try to zoom in on the animal in trouble, and all they are going to see if your butt. "

She actually started laughing then. May not be the best parenting technique ever, but I got a giggle, and the noises stopped, at least for a few minutes.

I doubt it will keep the noises at bay for long, but seriously, there is a limit to the amount of times I can tell her the same thing, those noises are in appropriate, unacceptable, and only evidence a bad attitude, the same way, before I have to invent new ways just for myself.

In fact, I'm sure the noises will start again any time now, as all little girls, from the age of 4 and up are pretty much full of nothing but attitude in its many forms. I better start working on something else to liken them to now. I don't know what it will be, but as long as it breaks up my own monotony of parenting verbiage, and makes her giggle, it will work.