blackft

Thank you all so much for your help. I really love what WisconsinMomma said because I don't want to chase the boy away, but I do want to retain my professional demeanor and I'm afraid that I've lost that during this challenge. I guess he really hit my main hot button lately and that's communication. We just had an event where the Scouts were to prepare breakfast for the Church congregation. Only two of my boys showed up, but thankfully the Venture Crew and older (retired?) Scouts were there to run things. I had several folks challenge me that we didn't communicate it properly. We

That's why I'm not using any names or locations for myself or this boy. I don't know what the exact "situation" is. All I know is that none of the other kids want to deal with him because his behavior is difficult for us to deal with. I realize that special needs is a politically correct term that has a very specific definition to those who keep up with the textbook, but to me special needs also means that an individual has needs that are special. It's so exhausting that I'm about to hang up the leader shirt I've been wearing for almost a decade.

Thanks everyone. I'm just trying to do my best while not allowing myself and the rest of my troop get derailed and distracted from the mission of guiding young folks toward self-fulfillment and leadership. I'm even now considering that perhaps this boy and father have been put in my life to help me improve myself. The only problem that keeps gnawing at me is, if I focus even more attention on helping this boy succeed, will he ever succeed or will he continue to sap energy from everyone who takes the time to help him? Ah, direct him toward his patrol leader! The kids lead the troop!

I've joined this forum because I was recently confronted by a rather angry father and I'm really confused if my natural reaction was appropriate. I've read some of the other topics and they seem to cover somewhat similar root subjects but I'm just hoping for some guidance on my specific situation. We have a 15 year old boy who may be special needs, or he may just be difficult. He'll never answer a question directly and he'll argue and renegotiate everything you ask him to do, all with a smirk on his face. So many events have been derailed because he seems to innocently mis-particip