Meeting The Girls

I couldn't tell you any specific names (yet) of the amazing little girls I met today, but I can tell you about the big blue eyes or the shy smile.

Today was my first time helping with a Girl Scout Meeting. I'm helping with the last meetings until I take over next school year so the current girls can get to know me and I can get the hang of how the meetings go.

At first I was thinking: "What in the world did I get myself into?" because there didn't seem to be any direction and there were girls running everywhere. But then they explained to me how there was a mix up with the snack and they were waiting and trying to kill time.

Finally that was all settled, and we broke out into groups. My group of kids didn't include any of my kids which I was glad for actually. They were earning their citizen patch. As we went over good citizens that they knew I was amazed: "Martin Luther King", "My Grandparents", "Mr. Patches". These girls really had a good hold on things.

We talked about feelings and empathy and taking a stand for what's right. We talked about troop rules and what happens when rules are broken. Since we will be going to Build A Bear in a few weeks, I decided to emphasize about strangers/field trip rules and what to do and what not to do.

They were pretty well versed on all of that stuff too. I had to change the subject because they were starting to scare themselves with the stranger business. One little girl clung to my arm so tightly and looked up to me with her big blue eyes and said she was getting too scared about everything we were talking about. So we changed the topic to voting and what it means. Then we held an election for the troops favorite color.

It was a great meeting and it also opened my eyes. I see my kids everyday and I get so fed up of them and their crap. They just seem so phony to me sometimes. I realized today, that even though they may be older than their years in the school of hard knocks, they are still so young and immature when it comes to childhood and just being a kid. Really it's hard to explain.

My kids are being phony when they do things like that, but they don't know how to be kids and they are simply emulating what they see. When I see them doing this, I feel like they are dumbing themselves down to be part of the crowd. But I realized at that meeting, kids learn from each other, not just their parents. If that's what it takes for them to learn how to be kids, I guess for now, I will let it be.

As for Girl Scouts...I can't wait and boy oh boy will there be changes!