My son has a friend over (both 9) and this little girl sounds so much like an adult. She just seems to have her shit together. She's completely delightful and I'm so glad my son has such great friends.
DS's classroom has a secret valentine where every kid gets a gift for another kid that matches their interest sheet. (Yes, it sounds like a disaster but it's a very small private school of kids who are in the same classes together for years so they know each other really well and it works out fine, apparently). Anyway, this year DS's valentine is a girl who runs a niche art YouTube channel with more than 100K followers. Some of her videos have 1 million views. He is completely not impressed by this but reading over her questionnaire, this girl is already at 11 cooler than I may ever be. Her handwriting is better than mine too 😂
I think it’s kind of terrifying for an 11 year old to have that many followers on social media.
jinkies , I appreciate your perspective! I was hung up on the fact that nobody else was allowed at the booth; one girl whose mom remembered the booth asked if she could join and was told no. But you're right that they do a ton and may see booth dibs as a way to reward themselves. That approach is not for me, but it's probably not uncommon and not a big deal.
All this aside, while I generally like GS and am glad we participate, I won't be sad when my volunteering obligations come to an end.
I am also commiserating with all of you who are looking forward to your kid being done with girl scouts. My daughter switched to scouts bsa a couple years ago and it was a huge relief to be done with cookies especially.
Of course joke was on me bc this year I got roped into being the committee chair which I had no idea was a big responsibility. It's only been 5 months and I'm completely over it. Scouts was supposed to be a nice "extra" for DD but it's not her primary activity and the work/time is not proportionate to her interest level.
She's making noise about quitting at the end of the year and I am not sad at all.
Our troop parents are acting particularly feral about cookie season this year and the disrespect is too much. My co-leader and I decided to do booths only this year. It’s not ideal for money making, but the truth is, we barely make anything off of cookies. We make less than a dollar off of $6 boxes of cookies and the work we have to put in is insane. I’m talking a part time job. Our parents never keep tabs on their stock, our council is always running out of varieties, no one follows directions, we spend ages running down money. It’s too much.
We now have parents threatening to buy our entire stock at our booths so they can turn around and re-sell them to customers who are “mad” they have to come to booths to buy. I’m sure I’m being trashed by these parents much worse behind my back than what they’re saying to my face, which is already pretty damned abhorrent.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with people. We are still doing cookie sales, and every scout has the opportunity to work on entrepreneurial skills at booths. I know for a fact these people just take the order forms to work and sell for their kids. That’s not helping your kid develop any skills!
I gave them the opportunity to volunteer to take over. I told them I would support them in their role. No one took over. This is our compromise. We love the time we spend with our troop and all the activities we get to do, but it’s a lot of work. Be respectful. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
"Great! I'm so happy to turn the reigns of cookie mom over to you. Please let me know when you have the supply for the booths and I'll pick it up from you."
- I don't want to do cookie mom!
“Ok. Until you do this is what we are doing.”
-But I want xyz!!
“Great! I’m so happy to turn the reigns….”
Over and over and over again.
I am sorry they are being beasts. Cookie mom duty was the one that always scared me.
Our troop parents are acting particularly feral about cookie season this year and the disrespect is too much. My co-leader and I decided to do booths only this year. It’s not ideal for money making, but the truth is, we barely make anything off of cookies. We make less than a dollar off of $6 boxes of cookies and the work we have to put in is insane. I’m talking a part time job. Our parents never keep tabs on their stock, our council is always running out of varieties, no one follows directions, we spend ages running down money. It’s too much.
We now have parents threatening to buy our entire stock at our booths so they can turn around and re-sell them to customers who are “mad” they have to come to booths to buy. I’m sure I’m being trashed by these parents much worse behind my back than what they’re saying to my face, which is already pretty damned abhorrent.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with people. We are still doing cookie sales, and every scout has the opportunity to work on entrepreneurial skills at booths. I know for a fact these people just take the order forms to work and sell for their kids. That’s not helping your kid develop any skills!
I gave them the opportunity to volunteer to take over. I told them I would support them in their role. No one took over. This is our compromise. We love the time we spend with our troop and all the activities we get to do, but it’s a lot of work. Be respectful. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
"Great! I'm so happy to turn the reigns of cookie mom over to you. Please let me know when you have the supply for the booths and I'll pick it up from you."
- I don't want to do cookie mom!
“Ok. Until you do this is what we are doing.”
-But I want xyz!!
“Great! I’m so happy to turn the reigns….”
Over and over and over again.
I am sorry they are being beasts. Cookie mom duty was the one that always scared me.
I’ve been doing that.
I’ve been having to loop in the council to cancel orders parents are running through their scout’s websites and making on stock we don’t have.
I had to refuse to sell to a grandma at today’s booth and she still tried to take cookies.
They’ve gotten really out of control. People are so broken anymore. They’re just assholes until they get their way.
It just makes me sad. I used to really enjoy being a leader and 1 cookie season might be the end of me.
If I stay on, the troop will not sell next year unless a parent takes over. Period.
I am naively shocked at how many western things I’ve seen in Sydney.
There is a McDonald’s and a Starbucks across from our hotel.
We haven’t visited either and so far found some good local places. Today we stumbled upon a shopping center and visited the local drugstore for the good sunscreen. Then grabbed some chocolate croissants from a little pop up place.
Post by emilyinchile on Feb 4, 2024 19:32:01 GMT -5
ssmjlm ok, I am cracking up that you are (I think?) surprised by the global proliferation of those two massive chains, but mostly I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FINAL SEATING SITUATION!!!
Patsy Baloney , I'm sorry those parents are giving you a hard time. I'm a cookie coordinator and once again regretting my choices. I have a GS thing to run by you, too. I'll preface this by saying I truly appreciate all the time the leaders give. They do a lot of fun, educational things with the troop, and I owe them a debt of gratitude for that and just keeping the troop running.
Long story short, they didn't include the first booth of the year on the booth shift sign-up sheet. The booth date/location was mentioned in one email and then never discussed again. When I had to record the sales/credit, I suggested we divvy up the sales among everyone registered to sell, as we hadn't given everyone a shot to participate in the booth. (They had decided they only needed three girls and were all set with their own daughters + one.) They told me they prefer to follow the GS recommendation of giving credit only to the girls working the booth, and the other girls can work another booth. I told them I'd agree had the booth been open to more girls, and I don't think it's typical for the leaders to decide who's working at a booth without first finding out who from the whole troop is interested. I was overruled, and I dropped it, except to annoy my poor H and everyone here with the story. It doesn't sit right with me, but maybe I'm the one who's off base.
This doesn’t sit right with me either.
We opt out of prizes now that they’re older, so this wouldn’t be a big deal in our troop. All sales are good and belong to everyone. Before we opted out, I often played with numbers behind the scenes to get kids up to the next prize level. My daughter is a pretty high sellers, so I’d take from her and give to another who just need *10 more boxes* for the stuffed animal. Just little things like that.
Anyway, with your example, I’m calling bull on their decision. In our troop, everyone has equal shot at all of our booths. I communicate all booths several times to our parents. We don’t limit attendance at all. Like today, we did a 90 minute booth at our local retirement community. It’s one of our favorites - we talk to the old folks and they buy a tremendous amount of cookies and give us a lot of donations. Everybody wants to go to that booth! I had 6 sellers today for 90 minutes, lol. They just split into squads of sellers, stockers and talkers, and switched after 30 minutes.
ssmjlm ok, I am cracking up that you are (I think?) surprised by the global proliferation of those two massive chains, but mostly I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FINAL SEATING SITUATION!!!
An angel in the form of a Qantas gate agent was able to get us together at the last minute!! They were calling our group when she called my mom to give her the updated boarding pass.
I know! I mean, it’s not like I haven’t encountered it in other travels. It was just funny leaving the airport and it’s like Krispy Kreme, McDonald’s, KFC, then their version of Burger King.
"Great! I'm so happy to turn the reigns of cookie mom over to you. Please let me know when you have the supply for the booths and I'll pick it up from you."
- I don't want to do cookie mom!
“Ok. Until you do this is what we are doing.”
-But I want xyz!!
“Great! I’m so happy to turn the reigns….”
Over and over and over again.
I am sorry they are being beasts. Cookie mom duty was the one that always scared me.
I’ve been doing that.
I’ve been having to loop in the council to cancel orders parents are running through their scout’s websites and making on stock we don’t have.
I had to refuse to sell to a grandma at today’s booth and she still tried to take cookies.
They’ve gotten really out of control. People are so broken anymore. They’re just assholes until they get their way.
It just makes me sad. I used to really enjoy being a leader and 1 cookie season might be the end of me.
If I stay on, the troop will not sell next year unless a parent takes over. Period.
I think thats a really good idea. Make them step up.
I ended up having a pretty nice day yesterday. DS did great at his basketball game (he's doing much better overall and being less goofy emilyinchile) and was so cute trying his hardest to play defense. My parents took him with them after the game and I went to our brewery for a cocktail by myself. A friend walked down to meet me and then we walked to another bar. Her H picked us up then and drove us to dinner 15 minutes away where we met 2 other friends. I had this delicious truffle parmesan bucatini pasta dish. And they gave me free cheesecake for my birthday! (I did not ask for it or tell them I was celebrating a bday but they must have overheard something.) I definitely had too many sugary cocktails and I think I'm good on those for awhile.
Today I drove up to my parents to go get DS and my dad made us brunch. H was feeling better-ish but I told him to just stay home and rest since he's leaving for a conference at 5am tomorrow. When I got home, I went to a friend's and sat on her patio in the sun and a fire in her chiminea for an hour or so. It was 52 degrees out in Central PA and the fire and warm sun was delightful! I didn't eat my cheesecake last night so I'm watching the Grammy's and doing that, and then I will go to bed early.
TLDR, sorry for my bitching, it was all fine, lol.
I am naively shocked at how many western things I’ve seen in Sydney.
There is a McDonald’s and a Starbucks across from our hotel.
We haven’t visited either and so far found some good local places. Today we stumbled upon a shopping center and visited the local drugstore for the good sunscreen. Then grabbed some chocolate croissants from a little pop up place.
I love one trip to a McDonald’s in other countries just to try what I can’t have here.
I am naively shocked at how many western things I’ve seen in Sydney.
There is a McDonald’s and a Starbucks across from our hotel.
We haven’t visited either and so far found some good local places. Today we stumbled upon a shopping center and visited the local drugstore for the good sunscreen. Then grabbed some chocolate croissants from a little pop up place.
I love one trip to a McDonald’s in other countries just to try what I can’t have here.
I am naively shocked at how many western things I’ve seen in Sydney.
There is a McDonald’s and a Starbucks across from our hotel.
We haven’t visited either and so far found some good local places. Today we stumbled upon a shopping center and visited the local drugstore for the good sunscreen. Then grabbed some chocolate croissants from a little pop up place.
When we were in Sydney I bought meat pies every chance I could, like any stand on the street… loved those! Don’t let the name fool you, I usually bought spinach and cheese!
Post by pierogigirl on Feb 4, 2024 21:59:00 GMT -5
I just bought eclipse glasses. I didn't realize I lived in the path (not totality but 90-95%). If you buy some, make sure they are ISO 12312-2 compliant. I had to buy a 10 pack because the 2 and 5 packs were already sold out. Last time, I got them at our local library, but I hadn't heard anything, so I decided to buy them.
Today has been exciting. DH has been complaining about feeling off for about a week. I finally got him to go to the ER to get it checked out. Doc kinda Pooh-poohed his symptoms until she listened to his lungs and said “whoa…you have very little breath sounds on the right side. We need a chest x-ray, stat”. So he has a spontaneous lung puncture and was admitted for surgery. Tomorrow is DD2’s 13th birthday so we’re all hoping he’s home.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
I am naively shocked at how many western things I’ve seen in Sydney.
There is a McDonald’s and a Starbucks across from our hotel.
We haven’t visited either and so far found some good local places. Today we stumbled upon a shopping center and visited the local drugstore for the good sunscreen. Then grabbed some chocolate croissants from a little pop up place.
Re: bolded part
Maybe it's not exactly what you mean by "good sunscreen," but my immediate thought went to chemicals (and the frequency/amount of bad chemicals in US products). The last time I was in Poland for work, I grabbed a few tubes of sunscreen. It was in September, so I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but will bring them with us on Spring Break. It is shocking what is allowed to be in food and personal care products in the US. If I ever get to fly on the company plane on a trip to Poland, I'm definitely bringing a really big suitcase to bring back lotions, sunscreens, gummy bears, etc.
Patsy Baloney, sorry to see your sales season is so stressful. As the head troop leader, my mom ALWAYS had someone else in charge of cookie sales. It is 100% reasonable to ask/expect someone else to take that on. I totally support you saying "we're not doing cookies" next year if no one steps up.