I survived another one

I can't believe that more than a year ago I went to the Brownie sleepover.

Yesterday I survived a Brownie campout. We went to Collin County Adventure Camp in Anna, TX. It was a mother/daughter campout because the other leader and I still don't want to deal with the drama of all the girls. Since there was quite a bit of drama, it was a good call.

Overall, it was a great trip. We drove up on Saturday morning and arrived around 9am. After settling in, we met with a camp guide Susan (who is a Gold Award Girl Scout herself) to learn how to use compasses for orienteering and did a GPS scavenger hunt. It was fun, but hot.

After the hunt, we had lunch & went to the rock climbing wall. We had "turtle time" (rest period) and then did a nature hike/hunt on the way to archery. We put clear packing tape bracelets on the girls' wrists and they picked flowers and leaves and stuck them to the bracelets. At the end of the walk, we cut off the bracelets stuck another piece of tape on top and they became bookmarks. Next we went to archery.

This is where the first bad thing happened. A came to me while we were walking to archery and told me she had a headache and thought she was dehydrated. I got her cold water and wet some napkins down for her neck and head. She got through archery fine but by the time we got back to the dining hall for dinner, she was distraught. I went off looking for ibuprofen/tylenol while she got some food. When I got back, she took the pill, but I could tell she was about to lose it. I took a bite or two of dinner and walked her back to the cabin to let her rest in my bunk in the dark & a/c. The plan was to have our bridge to Junior Girl Scouts ceremony after dinner. A was so upset, mostly because everyone was having fun and she was feeling horrible and couldn't enjoy herself. After a half hour, I checked on her to see if she could make it through the ceremony. She sat up and bolted to a trash can to get sick. Luckily that was the trick. She instantly felt better and within 15 minutes was dancing around the girls' cabin. (I told my mom and she said it was a migraine headache.)

We had our bridging ceremony so our Brownies are now Junior Girl Scouts. We celebrated with a watermelon and went to the bonfire/storytime/sing-a-long. After a bit of singing and playing we headed back to the cabin for campfire & s'mores.

This is where the drama started. We should have had enough s'mores for everyone to have two. Unfortunately this was announced to the girls but half the crackers were broken and we were missing a box of graham crackers. Everybody got one but some girls got two. Oh the horror.

The girls started playing in the rooms. They were running back and forth between cabins. They were locking each other out, slamming doors, excluding girls, and tattling left and right. All the moms were sitting around talking. One or two tried to talk to the girls and tell them to stop. I finally gave up and went into Cabin A. I told them there would be no more slamming or locking of doors, there would be no more excluding of girls. They insisted they hadn't done any of those things. One replied, "Mrs. R, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you telling me I did those things when I didn't is disrespectful to me." I almost lost it.

I told her that I was not specifically addressing her, I was address all of the girl scouts. I reached up and tried the handle to their cabin. It was locked. I looked at all of them and said, "There will be no more locking of doors." They were all very sheepish. Next I went to Cabin B and repeated my speech. The girls were apologetic and not nearly as defensive as the first group. By the time I got back to my seat at the campfire, a group of girls came up to start tattling. This is when I really lost it.

I went to both cabins, told the girls to put on shoes and go to the campfire. I told them I was mad and to be quick. I took a few deep breaths and went out to face the girls. At this point all of the mothers were quiet too and I had a whole audience. I stood in front of them and said I was sorry about the cabin situation but this was not cabin A v. cabin B. That we had repeated asked them to stop locking doors, knocking and running, slamming doors and excluding people. That we were there as a girl scout troop to camp. We were not there as two seperate cabins to fight. They had just bridged to juniors but I was disappointed because they were not acting like girl scouts. I reminded them of the girl scout pledge we say and asked them all to raise their hands and repeat the pledge. While they said the pledge I was in a total panic because I should have had them repeat the girl scout law instead of the pledge. Luckily the last line of the pledge is "to follow the girl scout law", so I followed up the pledge by asking what the last line of the girl scout law was. A bunch of them raised their hands and told me "To be a friend to every girl scout."

I told them I expected them to start living that line, they had to be a friend to every girl scout. There would be no more playing inside the cabins, they all had to play together outside.

I don't know if the mothers thought I was a psycho G.S. leader. I apologized to them for losing it. Most of them said they were sorry for not paying attention to what was going on with the girls. I'm certain that some of those girls probably hate me. I don't really care at this point. We are splitting the troop up next year and that group of girls who think I am disrespectful will no longer be in the troop I lead.

I actually feel relieved and I'm looking forward to leading a smaller and more cohesive troop next year. Maybe we'll be done with all of the drama.