Tuesday 10 January 2012

scouts | how did I get here?

I wrote this post last November, but never published it. Here's the story of my parent-to-leader scouts journey.
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I promised a story, so here it is.


I called my mum this morning and asked "why didn't we do extra-curricular activities when we were kids?" Once we got past the "your school was too far from home" response to our high school years, we established that I was really asking "why didn't we do stuff like scouts or girl guides?" Her response? "You never asked, so we never offered, and we were too busy building our business up."

So, how did I go from no background in scouting to being a leader? In one sentence, there was no one else. The long story is that Douglas has been going to scouts for the last three years. Earlier this year the Joey scouts leader moved away with her family, so the Cubs leader has been working on her own. (our pack and mob have been grouped together for the last five years, so the leaders had been leading together anyway).

At the start of the year, the Cubs leader went to visit her partner in Holland (they've maintained a long-distance relationship for seven years!) and came home with a ring! And that was when she decided to resign from scouts and focus on her new family. That's where I come in. I'd sort-of been hanging around, sharing the occassional craft with the kids, having a voice on the parent committee, selling chocolates for fundraising, and starting to get involved in life again (having babies keeps you busy with other stuff!) I put my hand up and said "hey, I don't have anything else to do with my life {ha ha}, I'll become a Joey scout and Cub scout leader"

Then the long process of paperwork starts - there's a system in Queensland called a "blue card" that every person who works with children must go through. Basically, it's a police check to see if you've ever done one of a number of nasty things to children. Because I'd had a blue card before, the paperwork only took three months to go through!

I was invested as a leader in September. I've been leading the kids by myself for the last couple of months. I've still got lots of training to do, and I'm making lots of changes to how our group runs, so it works better for the kids and for me. Those map-reading and compass-reading sessions in primary school have come in handy for my training, and I'm flexing muscles that haven't been used much in the last few years. And I'm having fun.
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7 comments

  1. Been there - done that lol. Welcome to the world of Scouting {{{offering left hand for a shake!}}}

    Just seeing the fun the kids get out of scouting every week makes the whole thing worth while - enjoy!

    Babs xx

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  2. Well done for stepping up and taking it on. I was a girl guide and my my dad did the same thing as you, becoming a scout leader for my brothers group as no one else would... So i get it!

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  3. Well done for stepping up. I think a lot of leaders share a similar story 'there was no one else'. I was a Guide leader until M was born and now my son's Cubs is facing the same problem but I just don't want to to take it on this time

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  4. Well done on becoming a scout leader. My two older brothers were in cubs and scouts and my sister was in the brownies. For some reason being number four of five perhaps my parents ran out of energy for this pursuit by the time they got to me. I didnt miss out though as I got to do other things.
    Must say I'm very pleased that scouts and guides is still alive and well. There is hope for my children's generation that this is still a cool thing to do :)

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  5. Well done Cate...it's amazing what we can do when we think 'there's no-one else'
    Alison xx

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  6. You are going to have so much fun! I was a Cub leader and my dh was Cubmaster and an asst Boy Scout leader.

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  7. Snap! My husband is a scout leader and just like you there was no one else to help him hence I'm in the process of become his assistant. It is interesting though and a good giggle xx

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