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Parent participation
Mauritius6@AOL.COM
Tue, 15 Dec 1998 08:49:18 EST
After reading some of the posts about parents not participating, I felt I
needed to respond.
Yes it's true there are parents who can not spare their time. There are also
many who don't have the time but find it anyway as with one of the responses I
read.
In our Troup there is a group of leaders and parents who always do things and
there are the ones who do nothing but drop off their child. These are many
times parents who do have the time to help out but don't.
First, it isn't fair / right for some to do all the work while others simply
drop their kids off. Scouting is not a baby sitting organization and whether
you realize it or not, there are families treating it as such.
My husband is Scout Master for my sons troup. Next year there are about ten
more Cubs crossing over. If there is not more participation from the parents,
activities and the monthly campouts will have to cease. A handful of adults
can be responsible for only so many kids and do so much. Lets take camping
for example. If you don't even have the drivers to get them there ( which is
a problem for us ) then the campouts just don't take place. Is this fair to
the Scouts whose parents have always been there to help?
So as you can see, having parent participation is very important. You can't
keep taking more kids without adult support. I'm not saying you should turn
every child away if the parent (s) is unable to help out. We have never done
that, but there is a limit to the amount of kids a small group can handle.
Not only does organization become an issue but safety as well.
By the way, my husband has MS, and we have three kids. Even though he is not
feeling well and the kids all go in different directions, we still find the
time to participate. As I said, he is the Scout Master. I'm on the
committee, a counselor and help in many other ways. If we can find time, so
can many other families. A little bit of help from each family can go a long
way. More kids with no added adult support will eventually lead to the
downfall of the Pack or Troup.
Thanks for listening, Kathy
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