I'm sorry to say that I lost my temper at Cub Scouts today. Despite that, it was a good meeting. The boys, including one who's new, worked on making board games and learning to play marbles, then we went to the kitchen and they helped me make Muddy Buddies. A lot of the boys didn't know what these delicious chocolatey-peanut-buttery treats are, but everybody was excited about helping, and everybody was definitely excited about eating them. Oddly enough, not one of the boys was excited about helping to clean up. Why should this be? It's a mystery.
Being a Den Leader is kind of tough at times. I don't think I'm old enough for them to respect as a "mom-lady," but I'm not young enough to be a peer. Cub Scouts is not like school: I can't send them to detention or the principal's office if they don't behave. Plus, it's voluntary and we want them to like coming, so we never want to exclude boys from activities.
However, I like order and I like to be listened to. There are two boys in particular who have problems with obeying directions, though all the boys slip now and then. Today I was washing out the dishes from the Muddy Buddies at one sink, while these two boys were tease fighting about who got to wash his hands at the next sink. The water in the sink was really hot and hurting my hands, Abby was shoving her head between my knees (her preferred method of getting my attention when she feels ignored), and I was very ready to go home. The boys were shoving and running into me, so I said, "Billy and Bobby, you need to stop." No response, of course (and not because those aren't their real names; I'm protecting myself. See title).
"Billy. Bobby."
Nothing.
So I yelled. "BILLY! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"
I definitely got his attention, anyway. I think I actually scared the poor kid. Sister Lefler (me) is normally such a calm, low-key person. Now he knows what happens when she doesn't get any Muddy Buddies.
2 comments:
Good for you! Yeah, I'm sure that shook them up.
Yeah...I did that at our primary program practice. I kept telling the kids, "If you ding the chimes when you aren't supposed to, I'm going to take them away." So of course, some kids had to sit there and absently ding-ding-ding their chimes. So I snapped, "Okay, that's it. Pass 'em in." Shocked silence. Then I snapped, "What - did you think I was kidding? I'm not just running my mouth here - don't hit the chimes out of turn!" I thought the Sunbeams would cry.
Funny! I wish I would have been there. I remember a day in Primary where this kid was really pushing my buttons, and I ended up grabbing his arm and saying "Why are you being such a rotten kid?!?!" I felt sort of bad afterwards, but he kept his distance from me ever after, and I think we both learned a lesson about Sister Gotberg's need for anger management. Maybe Muddy Buddies would have helped me too.
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