NOldFatGuy

Perhaps I'll just tell all the parents of the troop that the SM and I are over the BMI standards and will therefore be unable to take the troop on any outings over 72 hours, and if they have any questions please feel free to contact the people responsible for this and then give them nationals number.

Due to budget cuts the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off temporarily...and busing for Venturer Daughter is not available, although Scout Son still gets to ride a bus (at least for this year) but walking to school for her is not an option...unless you think walking along 2 and 4 lane divided and undivided highways with no sidewalks, and drainage ditches on both sides acceptable (I don't think I'm overprotective, but I don't see this as very smart). On the other hand I'm all for the wearing of helmets when riding bikes, climbing / rappelling, knowing the proper handling of firearms, having a buddy when swimming.....come on people lets have an outbreak....of common sense, our bodies were designed to fix themselves, we have natural instincts for certain things....that tend to keep us walking the "safer" side of things, when we place little Johnny in his antibacterial, impact/water/insect/sexual predator/life experience proof hamster ball we are taking all the choices that make us who we are away from them. I love my children very much, and don't want anything bad to happen to them....but my Son didn't learn not to touch the burner on the stove from me telling him not to touch it....or from the state requiring that all household cooking activities take place within a secured room with over 21 access only....he learned when he burned his finger....hasn't touched the burner since. Life is meant to be lived.....after that I guess it's up to Darwin.

We've been fighting this battle since the BSA began. When I was a scout I had to put up with my hockey coaches telling me if I didn't show up for everything I would be benched, I finally sat down with my coach and asked that if my performance in practice and games was not suffering by my missing 1 practice a week, and 1 practice a month on the weekend why would I be benched, luckily he was understanding and we were able to work things out (which is why hockey helped pay for 3 years of college until injury forced me to quit) My point here being that maybe there might be some understanding coaches / band directors out there, maybe the scouts might need our help to talk to them due to some intimidation factor (I know some of my coaches scared the bejeebers out of me)maybe we can offer the boys the best of both worlds...who knows, maybe you have the next Nolan Ryan, or Lebron James in your troop, with your help maybe they can be a superstar....and an Eagle.

By the way...my Scoutmaster was the less understanding of the 2 groups....I ended up dropping out a scoutmaster conference short of star rank...but ended up being scouted by the NHL.