Scouts Honor

Well, it’s reached that time of year, again, where my wife and I try to over-commit ourselves.  Soccer season is hiding just around the corner, waiting to pounce on us and kick the snot out of our Saturday mornings.  The difficulty is multiplied by the fact that both Griffin and Gage will be playing this season.  Despite the long days ahead, I’m certain they’ll have a wonderful time.

Aside from my wife being tied up with PTO this year, we’ve also added something new to the mix.  Griffin came home from school on Monday completely frantic about how awesome Boy Scouts is.  I’ve got to hand it to whoever did the in-class recruiting; You…Were…Incredible.  He hit me as soon as I walked through the front door, brandishing a colorful sheet of propaganda, showing boys in the midst of various exciting activities.  Usually our quiet one, Griffin continued to jabber all through dinner about the things we would do once we were in Boy Scouts.  “A bit excited are we,” I asked my wife.  “Oh, I’d say so,” she replied.

A good night’s sleep did little to diminish his fervor.  As he sat at the breakfast table on Tuesday, he held an apple in one hand, and his hallowed brochure in the other.  “We’re going to the meeting tonight aren’t we,” he asked.  I told him we would and went about the rest of my morning while he talked of camping, archery, and BB guns.

That evening, I was once again met at the door with questions of when we were going to go.  I told him it would be after dinner, and that’s when he asked me, “So, do we just follow the guy after it’s over?”  I realized right then that he had the wrong idea about what would go down this night.  I think he somehow got it in his head that we’d sign up, walk out the back door of the school cafeteria, hop in a canoe, and paddle toward our campsite.

It’s always a bummer when your expectations get dashed.  He did handle it pretty well, though.  I explained that we were just signing up tonight, and these fun activities were events that would take place throughout the year.

It should have come as no surprise that he’d think this way.  He’s being brought up in a society that’s just not geared to wait for things.  We cook with microwaves, we have the internet at our fingertips, and we have fast food that sometimes just isn’t fast enough.  Our family rarely watches anything on TV that hasn’t been DVR’d.  We don’t have time for commercials!  The kids are completely baffled at what “live TV” is.  We watched a show during Shark Week and they couldn’t fathom why we wouldn’t fast forward through the commercials.  There was just no explaining it to them.

Sure, we’ve made life convenient for ourselves, but it leaves me to wonder what kind of expectations we’re instilling in our children.  Are we making their lives easier, or hurting them in the long run?