So Close to Adulthood, Still Stuck In Childhood

Collin never ceases to amaze me with how grown up he looks and often acts. The transformation has happened in a few short years. He's often sarcastic and wickedly funny..... yet there are times when he shows that he's definitely still a child.

Case in point. This past week has been Spring Break. While many of our friends have headed for warmer destinations, we don't have the time or money to go on a Spring Break trip.... and nor do many of our neighbors. This is an awesome time for the boys in the 'hood to play together without the worries of school and homework cutting their time short. So, Collin has been playing a lot with his friends. And, with the unseasonably warm weather we've been experiencing, the wildlife is booming around us. The bees and wasps have come out in full force. The boys decided that they needed to eradicate the bees and wasps, and therefore went on a hunt for them. Their first mode of attack? Squirt guns. Upon finding the squirt gun a less than suitable means of killing off the pests, my son decides to grab a broom. All fine and dandy if you're hunt wasps in trees and swingsets. Not so fine if you're hunting them in the neighbor's front window. Needless to say, Collin is going to find out what it means to have a loan. Because he's going to borrow from his savings account to pay for the window and then work to pay himself back.

Cub Scouts

So, after much deliberation and soul-searching, I took it upon myself to fill the vacancy of Cubmaster for Griffin's Pack. If you're wondering how the Cubs Scouts work, there is a den, which is five to six boys that go through the ranks of Scouts together. Then you have the pack.... that's all the dens from every age group.... typically a whole elementary school. We've had the same Cubmaster for the past several years, and his youngest son has now gone on to Boy Scouts (middle school and high school years). He's done a good job of it. And no one, as of a few weeks ago, had stepped up to fill the void of his position, which he's been advertising for about two years now. So... I did. I got word this past week that they've accepted my offer. This is going to be no small job. Why the heck would I do it, knowing full-well I don't have the time for it, really? Well. For the next three or four years, I want Griffin to have the best scouting experience possible. I want this for the five other boys in my den, for which I just resigned as Assistant Den Leader. I want them to look back on this time as some of the most fun in elementary school.

I'm still uncertain on how this will impact my little crazy family. And it's certain to impact it. But I do believe that I'm doing what is right for the good of the boys.

Wish me luck, because I'm going to need it.... :-)

I Survived!

So I survived last night's stint at the dojo with my sanity in tact. I did have help, which was good. She just got her black belt and has been an assistant instructor for a long time now, so she helped me with the things that had changed or I'd forgotten in the three years or so since I was in some of these classes.

We did have only one issue that I feel a bit badly about. A brown belt student that I'd never had came to a white belt class. I didn't talk to his parents before-hand, so I had no background information whatsoever on the child, who appeared to be about 10 or so. I try to treat everyone the same. So when he talked back to me as I was trying to help him, I told him to give me ten pushups. After all, he is a brown belt and should know by now to respect whoever is teaching the class. He told me that he wasn't going to do pushups. I told him that he had the choice of either doing the pushups or bowing off the mat, because I wouldn't be spoken to that way. He sat down on the mat and howled. It clicked to me then that he had special needs and no one bothered to let me know. Not that I would treat him that much differently, but you know not to go quite as hard on the kid when he/she doesn't exactly behave as expected. I feel bad to a degree about what happened, but do feel that the mom should have not assumed that I knew what was going on with her child. I suppose it's a very tricky situation for the parent, too, because you don't want the child to be known only for the special needs that they have. I went out after class and talked to the boy, and told him that I wanted him to try class again next week. I hope that he's ok.

The rest of the night went really well, actually. I am feeling more and more comfortable up in front of the classes, but know that I have a while to go before I feel like I do a good job with it.