Your second full-time job?

A lot of us were drawn into Scouting as adults with the assurance that “it’s only an hour a week.” We’d be hosting a fun activity, we were told, using the published handbooks and planners, so we don’t have to work through it ourselves. We’ll have help – the other parents will pitch in. We can get trained so the job is even easier. And that’s all there is to it!

It’s only later that we find we take on a second hour, then a third, because we like the way that things are going. Continue reading “Your second full-time job?”

When it’s “time to tell”, will your Scouts know what to do?

Big headlines were made last year when allegations of child sexual abuse came forth against former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The failure to maintain accountability when faced with the allegations led to the dismissal of the beloved head coach Joe Paterno and the university president, Graham Spanier. As this article is written, Sandusky is standing trial in Pennsylvania on the charges that he molested several teenage and pre-teen boys within the structure of the Penn State football program and through his youth foundation. The testimony has been graphic; read some of the news accounts here.

As we are told in the BSA’s excellent resource, A Time to Tell, sexual abuse is all too common in our society, and it isn’t always perpetrated by those who you’d think. Continue reading “When it’s “time to tell”, will your Scouts know what to do?”

Remember when you were a kid?

Ah, summer. The weather has finally gotten nice all over the country. School is out or almost done for most, and our kids are looking forward to having a couple months off from the daily grind of classes, homework, projects, term papers and study sessions.

If you’re of a certain age, your summers were probably made up of long days where you’d set out in the morning with friends to go nowhere in particular, roam the neighborhood or town, play in the yard or relax in the woods or by a nearby pond, only coming home for lunch, dinner or bedtime.

But if yours is a typical “modern family” your kids can probably look forward to days being driven to day care, math, sports or church camps, organized “play dates” or other activities that have replaced the freedom to roam that we enjoyed as youth. Continue reading “Remember when you were a kid?”