cubmom

I am 47, and I have carried a pocket knife in my purse ever since I was 16. I find it invaluable, and cannot imagine being without it. I will never forget the time my son and I were in Home Depot, and I was buying a length of rope - the poor fella that was attempting to cut the rope was using a pitifully dull knife. I reached into my purse, retrieved my *always sharp* knife, and sliced cleanly thru the rope. The guy was amazed - he said "man that's a sharp knife you got there". I smiled at him and said "What good is it if it's not sharp?" and then took my rope and left. My son never for

mk9750 - you are right - you DID strike a nerve with me. I get extremely frustrated with many (if not most) parents today that prefer to parent in a "hand's-off" fashion. You know the kind - the *Oh let's buy'em an electric scooter and a game boy and then he will stay busy and leave us alone* type of parenting. I took your reply as criticism of the very thing I work so hard at - ensuring that my son has a very well-balanced and meaningful, fun childhood. My son has had his share of hammered thumbs, believe me. He also has a great memory of carving his initials, with his own knife, into a

mk9750 - you should know that everyone is not so *blessed* as to have a workshop, a bandsaw, or even a place to PUT a bench vise. Most of us do this work in the kitchen - at least that is the case in MY house. "Sanding and painting isn't going to cause lost digits" - Of course not, and when we are able to any work outside, he does so. He did ALL of the sanding himself. ALL of it. I put on the last coat of paint that went on - *I* sprayed it, and *I* I failed to shake the can, so *I* screwed up the paint job. Also, my son has every one of his derby cars in an honored spot in his bedroom.

Sounds like you have a good environment for you guys to work in. No way would I let my son use a dremel, in our current setting. I don't have the space to set up a proper "shop", so any work that needs to be done is completed in less-than-adequate conditions, with plenty of room for getting in trouble. If I had a workshop, he could certainly handle more of the actual woodwork himself, with me supervising. Unfortunately most of the work we do takes place on the dining room table. And I LIKE that table.

Yeah kwc57 - yeah - what you said. mk9750 - I certainly did not *misspeak*. You don't really mean that you let your kids loose with spray paint and saws do you? Obviously my son does as much as he can. But the stuff where he can get into trouble is my responsibility. Personally I wish the rules stated that the cars had to be build by kids alone, with NO help. Obviously the cars would look far inferior, with very simple designs, but it sure would make my life easier! I did sand the car back down - pretty much to the wood - and started over. I did not use any primer as I just

Of course it's for the kids. That's why I'm knocking myself out over it, right? :-) Actually, this is his dad's (my ex) fault. He's a crab and wants nothing to do with the derby. GRRRRRR..... Anyway - guess I'll try sanding one more time when I get home (sure hope it's dry) and then give it another go.

I was tring to get a nice smooth finish on my son's car. We used the gloss spray enamel, and I was sanding between each coat. Unfortunately I guess we did not sand well enough initially, and these darn grooves kept reappearing with each coat. I said the heck with it and decided that one last coat would be it, but now I have a terrible mess (maybe I didn't shake the can enough - don't know what happened but it came out all bumpy) I tried to wipe off the last coat, off course now I have to sand again and repaint. I think maybe I have TOO many coats on it now - if I want to strip the paint of

Well I have presented the idea of dens using the dues for fund their activities. Actually, since we have dues paid in 2 payments of $25 each, I suggested that the den take the frist payment and the pack take the second. But one of the leaders brought up a good point...if I let the den leaders collect the money, then I have no way to account for that money...and no way to show that $25 expense. I am still going to have to manage these darn dues (and fighting THAT battle again does not appeal to me at all!) this year...no way around it. But...I will turn over the payments to the dens, expens

Thanks all. I did find the list - and it is 40 "emblems" (not patches - excuse me). So we will simply use a creative name for one of them. Thanks.

I was informed today that there is an official list of patrol names somewhere that the boys need to choose from. The reasoning is that there are patches that are already available for those names, and if you decide to use an "original" name, then you must pay to have a patch designed. Good grief - does it really get this complicated? I was under the impression that the boys could come up with their own name - and I didn't even know they had to have a matching patch. Does anyone know the answer to this?

Yaworski - yes there is an option to forgo the prizes - you get an additional percentage of profits - I forget what the number is - but it goes into your Scout store account. Scoutnut - yes you understood me corrrectly. I think this is the 4th (maybe 5th) year of our pack, and then this past summer several of the leaders decided to create a troop - but I never understood it to be a completely separate entity. There was some discussion - a couple of the leaders thought that we should take some of the pack funds to set up the troop (and I actually posted a thread about that because I had

ScoutNut, and Yaworski - the reason we do our own prizes is that somewhere along the way we decided that we could get more "bang for the buck" if we took the additional percentage by forgoing the traditional prizes, and did our own. I do think the boys like our choices better.

Eagle74 - thanks for all the info. I agree that the committee should not leave these decision to me - I keep trying to push for them to make the decisions - but I do think it is appropriate for me to provide some guidance, and I thank all of your for your most helpful replies! I very much like the idea of the dens collecting their own dues to provide them their funding - that is the best idea yet.

Whoah - thanks for opening my eyes on the Pack vs. Troop. Boy do I feel stupid. Somehow I never got that from all the conversations we had in our pack. Well, that is even more interesting then...I am managing one bank account, but I guess I am NOT tracking expenses correctly. Great. This is getting to be a great big headache!

Rooster7 - all those costs you mentioned were included in the budget - absolutely. This problem is more with UNBUDGETED expenditures that occur within the dens, without approval. And the budget is approved each year (in reality, this is only the 2nd year we have had a budget) and I guess we are in the process of approving one for this year. We included a small amount last year, for the whole pack, for den activity/supplies. Obviously we overspent that by a great deal. So I like the idea of the $/den or $/boy limit. I will suggest that. Also I agree on the snacks - I don't know where th