I’m a leader for my daughter’s Brownie troop. Other than my co-leader and I, the other parents do pretty much NOTHING for the troop. We plan all the meetings, outings, etc.
That’s OK – even though it’s more work than advertised, my daughter and the girls really have a good time.
Our girls decided to use the money they earned from cookie sales for a Spa day – not what I would have chosen (I wanted to go to a museum) but they voted and that’s what they decided. Part of Girl Scouts is letting the girls decide things.
Well, one of the moms is APPALLED that they voted to use their money that way. She thinks it’s totally against the Girl Scout ideals of community service and camping and blah blah blah. Plus it’s way too much money!!! Plus her daughter doesn’t want to do it but was coerced (bullshit). She just sent out a lengthy email to complain. Btw, the email includes the fact that her daughter sold more cookies than anyone else (sales proceeds are for the entire troop, not for each girl to decide).
Look, I’m not thrilled about it either (and it was my daughter’s idea!). But we let them vote and that’s what they came up with.
So if you don’t like it, BITCH, you can volunteer to be the leader. Otherwise, STFU.
Well, now you’re going to have to let us know how it turns out. Hopefully explaining it the way you explained it here will get her to understand. Even if her daughter was coerced, would her vote have changed the outcome? Besides, is this mom suggesting the entire group should do what SHE wants to do instead of what the majority voted on?
ETA, I’d leave out the stuff about you not being to thrilled about it either. You want to leave emotion out of it. Lay out the facts and tell her to bugger off.
How old are Girl Scouts? Are kids even allowed in most spas? If they are old enough to go to the steam rooms and saunas, get the girls to research the long, rich and varied histories of both in tons of different cultures, from Native American sweat lodges to Turkish Hammams. Not to ruin their good time, but to shut this woman up.
If the girls choose that as their reward, yes. As well as supporting all of the programs, camps and troop activities the girls do throughout the year.
What I’d argue to the bitchy other mom is that part of growing up is learning how to navigate and negotiate your own position within larger groups. Her daughter had an opportunity to convince the troop to choose some other activity, and didn’t prevail, assuming she tried.
Part of growing up is also going along with activities you didn’t personally choose or vote for or whatever. Maybe she’ll love it. Maybe she’ll hate it. Either way, it’s a chance to expand her horizons a little.
No, we are supporting girls in what they choose to do.
I was a Girl Scout leader for 12 years. Like the OP I wouldn’t be thrilled about a spa day, but I am sure there is some creative way to tie it in with a Try-it (are the Brownie level badges still even called try-its?).
For the complaining mom do what I did when I was a leader. Mark a envelop “complaints” and put applications to become a leader inside it. Give it to her telling her it is a complaint form for her to fill out. She’ll be quiet once she sees whats inside.
While I find that somehow hard to believe, (another “I do all the work” posts) not everyone has the free time that you have to do all this, which is why you are the leader, and they are not. And, part of being a “leader” is listening to the opinions of others, many of which might not agree with your own, even if that person doesn’t have all the free time you seem to have to be in that volunteer leadership position.
I too, find the idea of little girls attending a “spa” a little odd. If you pull up to the spa, and it says Dae-Kim’s Happy Ending Message, here’s my advice: turn around, and do not go in.
Is it always a good idea to allow 5 year olds to “decide” on things? What if they decided to take a trip to Libya? Maybe once in a while, it’s not a bad idea for Mommy and Daddy to step in say, why don’t you pick something else, ladies?
Wait a minute. In other words, the money that I spend to buy those crappy, way overpriced, stale girl scout cookies that annoying parents at work are always hitting me up for is supposed to go to help the community, or for educational or outdoor activities and not going to a spa? And community service and camping activities, to you, are “blah blah blah” and you are a Brownie leader??? I have to agree with the other parent here.
There, I disagree with the parent. It’s not too much money— it’s a WASTE of money.
Sounds like she’s the only girl with either a brain or good parenting in the group. Maybe that girl, not you, should be Brownie leader.
Maybe, but clearly, she put in the most effort begging and annoying adults for money, and I am sure is disappointed to see her efforts go to nigh thanks to the other slackers in her troop.
Ah-HAAAA, now we get to the core issue here. Because it was your daughter’s dumb idea, you feel this other parent is attacking HER. I bet if one of the other Brownies came up with this idea, and the other girls voted for it, you would have stepped in and suggested a more appropriate use for the money, isn’t that right? And maybe AGREED with the other parent who sent the email.
Come clean.
For once, we agree on something, it sounds like there is a leadership vacuum in this troop, and she SHOULD volunteer to take your position.
Of course, I find the contention that just because someone else has other things to do and not as much free time to be the busybody you are, they are not entitled to express their disagreement with how someone else is running an activity that their child is involved with, and obviously put more time in than any of the other girls, to be a bit self-serving.
My ruling is that you are right: you should step down, and allow someone more competent to take over this rabble.
You are a moron. Little girls wanting to get their nails done is the same as allowing them to go to Libya? Does the pain of that stupidity eventually dull, or do you always feel it sharply in your brain?
I dunno. If my daughter’s troop decided to use their cookie money to do a Spa day (really?), you bet I would be raising hell too, and looking around for another troop to put her in. That should have been vetoed as soon as it was raised.
Spa day. What the fuck is a SEVEN YEAR OLD going to do with a fucking spa day? Like they aren’t taught to place way too much emphasis on their appearance soon enough. From the GSA website:
In what way is going to a spa age-appropriate? How is it “working together”?