I’ve done it.
I’ve raised a school-aged daughter.
Please, hold your applause.
Still, it was a surreal feeling, as my wife and
I watched her get on the bus for the first time, sporting her new Chucks (with
neon yellow shoelaces of course), smiling broadly at her first day of
kindergarten. No tears from her eyes, no shouts of “I don’t want to go to
school!” And walking back to our house,
I reflected that this was something we had done: we’d brought a child into this
world, raised her, helped mold her little personality (just kidding, there’s
nothing little about her personality), and brought her to this point.
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| Clearly, she gets her style from her old man. |
School!
And the first day went perfectly. She was happy, she was excited to go back,
and she didn’t get in any trouble for misbehaving or not listening.
She saved that for the second day.
Oh, well.
Even I had to stand in the hall a few times…
And at open house last week, she saw the Girl
Scout recruiting table and decided that she wanted to be a Daisy Scout.
Of course she did. How could this rainbow unicorn ninja resist
becoming a Daisy Scout?
But for one small problem: There was no one to be a Daisy Scout Troop Leader.
Solution:
Meet the new Daisy Scout Leader!
What have I gotten myself into?
All kidding aside, I’m feeling pretty excited
about this whole prospect, although I know it won’t be the easiest thing I’ve
ever done. Still, let's face it: I wasn't cut out to be a soccer coach. Scouting, on the other hand, seems a natural fit. It seems to be about instilling in young people a sense of honesty, integrity, responsibility, for our country, for our civic duty, for our planet. That's a message I can certainly get behind.
Plus, my wife pointed out to me that I would be much
better at teaching outdoors-y type stuff than she would. I pointed out that Daisy Scouts don’t learn
to start fires or build lean-tos, as far as I know. (Although they will, now!) Still, I feel lucky to know that my wife will be there to help me when I need her to, and my daughter will (hopefully) love having me as the troop leader.
Even still, shouldn't a Girl Scout leader maybe have been a Girl Scout, or at least, you know, be a girl?
Now, I’ve said a thousand times before that the
parenting world is mom-oriented, and sometimes very anti-dad. And this may seem like one more loud protest that
yes, we dads can do this stuff, too.
It isn’t.
If there is one area where it makes a certain
amount of sense to prefer females over males as leaders and mentors of
children, it would totally be the Girl Scouts.
I’m not here to change anything.
I’m not standing on my soapbox, I’m not holding up any protest signs, I
just want my daughter to be able to be a Daisy Scout. And if that means they need a Daisy Scout
leader, then I will happily volunteer to be a leader.
If it means I’m the only guy in the room, that’s
okay. If it means that all the generic
literature will refer to me as a “she,” I’m cool with that. I won’t say a word against it. I don’t know yet if I will be required to
wear the uniform, but if so, I can do it.
If it means there will be special extra rules that I need to follow, as
a guy, for the safety of the scouts, I will happily abide by them.
That all said, I applaud the Girl Scout for giving me, and dads like me, this opportunity. It still boggles my mind that the Girl Scout Membership form has a box for "Male,"
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to start memorizing the Girl Scout promise.
I assume they'll teach me the secret handshake at some point.
I assume they'll teach me the secret handshake at some point.
It looks like I am in for another interesting
adventure in parenting…
Stay tuned!
