Tag: Adult behavior

Posted on

Know the rules!

rulebooksEvery game has its rules. They can be very basic or highly complex. Any baseball fan who knows the infield fly rule can tell you just how complex the rules of the game can get.

Scouting is a game. Our founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, even said so. It’s a game with a purpose but it’s still basically a game. And like almost all games, there are rules for the game of Scouting. Our rules can range from the very basic – “Be prepared!” and “Keep it simple, make it fun!” – to the very complex, as you might find in the Guide to Advancement.

Why do we have rules? Continue reading “Know the rules!”

Posted on

Micromanaging: a bad idea

puppetWe’ve all been there, I’m sure. We’ve worked for, or with, someone who quite figuratively can’t see the forest for the trees. Someone who fusses over every small detail of a project, process or workplace and who directs even the most minute function, whether it’s something he or she knows about or not.

Micromanaging, as it’s come to be known, is the bane of corporate existence. Articles and entire books have been written about the phenomenon and what to do about it. It has even spawned a wildly popular comic strip, Dilbert, in which a typical engineer is tormented daily by his boss with inane orders, processes and obstacles to getting any work done.

Unfortunately, Scouting isn’t exempt from the micromanagers. Continue reading “Micromanaging: a bad idea”

Posted on

The adult role at summer camp

campflagsSoon our troop heads off to summer camp, as does just about every troop. This week I sent out the following advice to our troop parents:

Summer camp is coming up in just a couple weeks. Summer camp is a critical time for our youth leaders to put the leadership they’ve been practicing into action. It’s what they’ve been working toward all year and looking forward to.

If you are planning to attend summer camp, please keep in mind that this is a time that the boys can manage their own affairs during the week. Continue reading “The adult role at summer camp”

Posted on

Three things you should never do

SM_SPL_200Just about all of us Scouters are also parents. As parents, we want the best for our kids, and some parents go a bit out of bounds to make sure they get the best and do their best – even if it isn’t really their best, if you know what I mean.

As Scouters, though, we really need to put some of these parenting instincts aside in order to make sure that we not only deliver the Scouting program as promised, but also to help our kids do their best by not helping them directly. Continue reading “Three things you should never do”

Posted on

Helicopter Scouters

coptermom_200We’ve all heard the term “helicopter parents.” It seems to be the parenting affliction for the 21st century. These are parents who want their children to succeed so much that they involve themselves in their children’s lives to the point where they don’t let their kids learn and do for themselves. Or that they fear that their child will make a mistake, no matter how small, that they don’t even give their children the opportunity to learn from failure, even when it’s safe to do so. I wrote about the subject a few months ago. Humorously, a Capri Sun commercial from earlier in 2012 illustrates the point quite well.

As adults and Scouters in the Boy Scout program, we often want the boys in our troop to have a good experience in Scouting. Continue reading “Helicopter Scouters”