Crazy Scout Mom

I'm on a mission.  My next two boys (Rhett and Dalin) will get their Eagle Scout awards ASAP.  I hate scouts.  I think it's great for them and I understand why it's important, but it doesn't make me hate it any less.  We tried with Stephen and Nick to do the "driving as an incentive" approach and failed miserably.  They don't care at 14.  We were not going to earn it for them so we stayed completely on the sidelines.  Well guess what?  I have an almost 18 year old and a 16 1/2 year old with no licenses.  Without a license it's also hard to get a job or go on dates.  Two things I think are important.  So I'm doing it differently with the next two.  When they joke about Mom earning an eagle award, I'll proudly say "yes I did!"  I don't care.

We spent Sunday morning, 2 1/2 hours of it, filling out merit badge packets.  Looking up information no 11 year old needs to understand and trying to write it in a 3 line space.  I have scoured the internet for any Merit badge clinic in the vicinity for them to attend and bugging the crap out of all our leaders to make sure everything gets recorded and handed to the right person.  The beauty of this tactic is 1) Dalin still enjoys doing it and actually feels excitement and pride in earning them 2) He and Rhett can do most of it together, two birds.. one long stone.

Nick has done everything to earn his Eagle except all the final paperwork.  We have resorted to grounding him until it all gets finished.  No more sidelines for me, cracking my whip. If Stephen wants to have any time behind the wheel, he has to have shown me some progress on his.  He has one more merit badge to earn and  a few to get signed off.  Then he has to actually do the eagle project.  Seriously, let's get this show on the road!  The part of me that hates conformity is in a serious uproar right now.