beardad

part of it is also, most sports season's are just 6 to 8 weeks long, compared to a (mostly) year round for the scouts. also work being done in a den meeting can usually be made up or done at home, but you can't make up a missed practice.

My son is involved in Football, and Scouts. he has missed some of both to go to the other. but I think alot of parents think that while sports is for only a short time, scouts will always be there.

Our pack has adults or older Scouts/Siblings handle the cars after check in too.

We like to pretend that it is because they don't want a bunch of kids getting close to the track and bumping it, or dropping their cars but that's not the real reason.

The real reason is, that some adults are just ultr competetive, and wouldn't be above adding a little more weight or otherwise altering the car after it has been officially checked in.

In the interest of not accusing anybody we all make up these other excuses, that may also be valid, just not the whole big picture.

WOW! I don't have anything to add, I just want to say we drove in the back of pick up trucks all the time as kids. never once did anything bad ever happen to me or anybody I know. We also used to ride our bikes with no helmets. crashed alot too, never had any problems. No wonder kids are so soft today. they must break easier or something.

I have no answer for "two". but when I was in the Marines in the mid 1990's we use Present and order arms.

Sounds alot like my son's troop. the only difference is, he is the only 11 year old. at summer camp he was the youngest there by 5 years. didn't make it easy for him patrol wise. I found out that he was pretty much left to his own devices during summer camp. he still managed to have fun though.

He has the same problem with advancement too. nobody to sign off for him since the "older Scouts" never seem to be at the meetings twice in a row. He crossed in March, and just now In Oct got his scout badge. (he hasn't actually recieved the badge yet, just presented him with the card)

In our Pack, parental involvement is required. we are a "no drop off" pack and go as far as have all parents fill out an adult application "for adult helper"

not just tigers all levels up to Web 2. not saying they sit with there kids all meetings but they are there.

I was never in scouts as a kid, but I can remember in highschool (early to mid ninties) going camping with my friends with no adults.

I don't see why kids would need adult supervision just because they are in an orignization. as long as parents are ok with it, there you go.

@DYB-Mike Off topic, but a couple of my good friends from school, are in Ms. Carlisle's band.

Our CO is a community youth center in a small suburb. I don't think so much that she is being elitest, as she is one of the those uber type a personalities that takes on everything, and is finally burning out. she has 1.5 years left. and I think she wishes it was sooner. I've seen it in other things too. I think she is not so much as being a snob, as just looking at he byproduct of the policy as not her problem.

My Pack is going to start requiring an application and background check for each parent with kids in the pack. Our COR stated this is the new national policy.

I responded with "oh really? can you show me in writing?" which she couldn't because it doesnt exsist. I explained to her that only registered leaders should be filling out apps. Her way to get around that is since we are a no drop off pack, every parent is a registered leader. fair enough. just don't say it's a national policy.

I think we will lose a few kids, due to parents not being able to pass a background check. she basically said that we didn't need those kind of people around. again what kind of people? kids?

she is the best COR I have ever seen and fights voraciously for our pack. but I think she is getting burned out and this will be her last year.

Wow, I am surprised at some of the answers on this. Maybe it's a regional pacific northwest fashion. (as is the socks and sandals). I always wear a long sleave shirt under my short sleeve uniform shirt. I hate wearing jackets and usually won't wear one.

I usually just wear a black long sleeve t-shirt. black matches everything.

I have never heard of being charged by the pound for propane. up here it is by the gallon. usually works out to be about $20 for a standard bbq size 5 gallon tank.

The part of your story where everybody is sleeping in, and you got up to do the dishes and make breakfast for your diabetic aunt. I totally thought you were going to say that when they all miraculously woke up from smelling the delicious food, there was only food made for You, your wife, and son and the in-laws. That is probably what I would have done. made just enough. but I am petty that way.

At the beginning of the trip, you should have made a schedule with everybody helping out. It is possible that these people are so used to not doing things for themselves that they didn't know they were supposed to help, unless you say something.

My wife's uncle has a house down at the ocean. He is gracious enough to invite us down a few times a year. It is usually with other members of my wife's family.

Before we even head down there we divide up the meals with each family in charge of providing, cooking and cleaning at least one meal(depends on how long we are there). That way the expectations are already there. there is no tension because somebody isn't pulling there weight, and we can get right down to enjoying "ocean time"

About his socks. I don't know if he did or not. I think he may have come home in the same socks he went in originally. I do know he showered on Wednesday, but I think he put back on his dirty clothes. We sent him with more than enough clean clothes. not sure why he didn't use them.

He is already talking about going next year. His experience with the horseback riding over night is awesome. He was excited that they even slept out under the stars no tent. That is one lucky kid. I have never even done that.

I may volunteer next year, if I can get the time off. Both of the adults who went this year, say they aren't doing it anymore. I specifically didn't want to go to camp his first year, so I wouldn't be a distraction, or an excuse for him to not be self reliant.

There were a whole list of merit badges for him to choose from. including 4 of the historic merit badges, of which he chose carpentry. but with his two class limit, he chose archery and rifle. those were his choices. the only one he got told no on was the horsemanship.

yeah he will be cooking once a week now. or at least help out.

thanks for the kind words

My oldest son just returned from his first experience at summer camp. He spent a week at Camp Baldwin, in Oregon. He came home dirty and muddy from head to toe, so it looks like he must have had some fun. none of the other boys were very dirty, so maybe they didn't have as much fun.

He was the only first year scout in our troop to go to camp. I have been a member here since he was a bear, and I've read all the stories about camp, and it still did not prepare me for how hard it would be for me to let him go. His mother, and I worried the whole week. I was not so worried about his safety, but more along the lines of the other kids and adults getting tired of him, because he doesn't know how to do things for himself, and acts kinda weird and immature sometimes. He didn't seem to have any of these issues, and did fine.

He did a couple of merit badges. rifle and archery. (He was going to take four, but apparently first years only could take two) neither of which he finished due to not qualifying on the range. no problem. hopefully somebody has his blue cards, and he can finish those up after some practice next year.

He took a T 2 1 class and finished his scout badge and most of his tenderfoot. He just needs to have a patrol flag, and yell, but none of his patrol mates were at camp.

This camp was a patrol cooking camp, and he got to make most of the breakfast's for his camp patrol, and said that when the patrol was cooking the food was good, but the 3 meals they had in the chow hall were bad. good for him. he is learning the value of making food for himself.

One of the benefits of Camp Baldwin (and the reason my son's troop traveled the 6 hours from WA to get there) is they have a bunch of horses. He wasn't old enough to do the Horsemanship merit badge, as they required him to be 14, he did however get to go on an overnight horseback riding trip. they slept out under the stars. I am jelous. that seems like an awesome experience.

Sorry for the long rambling rant. I just wanted to type out my thoughts about this, and if any of you want to read it great, if not no harm in just skipping it. (although if you got this far you already read it, so jokes on you.)(This message has been edited by beardad)

as you can see by my user name, I was my son's bear dean leader, actually I was also his Wolf den leader. Then our pack folded and we moved to a new pack for his webelos years, and my youngest son's tiger and wolf year.

So this year my older son crossed over. I thought great, I am done with cubs. I can help out with Boy Scouts. but now my youngest son is a bear, and we found out at the last pack meeting of the year (may) that the CM is moving to Texas. I was asked quietly to consider CM, but I politely declined, saying that the current ACM would be a better fit.

Well the ACM accepted, and him being one of the people from my old pack asked me to be ACM. So hear I am sucked back into cubscouts at a position I wouldn't have dreamed of taking. I got burned out of leadership during my older son's Bear year, so I am glad I took those 2 years off.

FYI Rockband is an xbox 360 video game. no real instruments. just intrument shaped controllers. It can be alot of fun, but not appropriate for campouts.

I have been to my district's roundtable a handful of times over the years. We are a fairly large district in a metro area. I would say on average 10 people show up every month. and that possibly up to 4 or 5 units are represented out of the hundreds of units in the district. Unless there is specific training going on (new leader essentials for example) nobody goes to these things.

Living in the state of Washington. I have never been camping where it HASN'T rained. ever.

We don't get much thunder storms up here. is it something to worry about? I could see being worried about lightning.

I don't see anything wrong with the belt loop. It's not being earned by getting a high score on Halo.

We are I guess what you would consider a gaming family. I am a college educated male in my mid 30's. One of my hobbies is video games. I have the xbox360 and the ps3 and my kids' have the wii (among various older nintendo systems and handheld devices)Video games are kind of a big part of our entertainment.

That being said, my kids are only allowed to play on weekends and non school break days. ( a schedule that they help set up)

They know the rating system and can explain what each rating means and the appropriate maturity level for each rating.

They can pick out games that are appropriate for their age level. My older son actually saved up all his birthday money and bought the new pokemon game all on his own.

So with out even trying or doing anything different they have earned the belt-loop.

I don't know what the requirements are for the pin, but I bet they could qualify for that with out doing anything different either.

It's fairly close, we share the same CO and meeting space (kind of), and I think we collaborate on one or two things a year.

Thanks for the kind words.

Thanks for all the ideas guys. We had the Cross over ceremony last night and I think it turned out well. I took bits and pieces of different ceremonies I found on the web.

We held it outside at our fire bowl during the last half of the den meeting. we had all the other ranks file out to the fire bowl, were we had a big fire going and a bridge.

I called the 2 boys who were crossing over up to the fire and gave my speech. mostly talking about there journey through scouts.

Then we had 12 members from the boy scout troop they were joining come out of the woods with lit candles each one reciting one of the points of the law and basically lining the bridge so it looked as the bridge was lined with candles.

When that was done I had each kid 1 at a time cross the bridge stopping in the middle to cub scout salute the cubmaster then when he got to the other side he boy scout saluted his new scout master.

they were met on the other side by boy scouts who removed there neckers and epulets and replaced with new ones, the last one giving them their new books. the scoutmaster welcomed them to the troop, and that was it.

I guess I should change my username to scoutdad now or something, but I guess my younger son will be a bear next school year, so it will be apt again.

sorry for the long post.

edited to add: I found out recently that the pack we are in has been around 45 years (that's 12 years more than me) and the troop my son just joined as been around since 1928 (that is the year my grandparents were born) useless bits of info, but I thought it was neat.(This message has been edited by beardad)

My Sons' pack does a graduation ceremony that is separate from the crossover. the cross over is done in March. Did it last night in fact, the grad ceremony is done at the last pack meeting of the year. last year they did a zip line and each kid got to put on his new necker at the bottome of the line.