An Unprepared Boy Scout

[5ft Diva]

Today I took my son to his first camp out. He wasn't ready and he didn't have the first clue of what he needed to bring. He woke up this morning scrambling for everything he needed thinking that he had enough time. I was very frustrated. I could see he was setting himself up for failure but held myself back from rescuing him because I realized this would be a valuable lesson for him to learn. It was hard though. I wanted to step in so bad to help him but I had to let him learn his own lessons through his own experiences. He even showed up to the place they were all meeting at w/o his scout shirt and was told he had to come back home and get it. On the way back he said that he felt stupid. I told him that he would probably never forget this experience and then we went through a list of things he could do differently to prepare for the next camp out. I didn't know any other way to help him through this. I felt like a heartless Mom and yet I didn't know what else I could do. Anyone else have to learn these hard "Mom" lessons that could give me some pointers? Should I have handled it differently?

[Mamallama]

I think this is one of the most difficult tasks to do as a Mother---to not always rescue our children. I think your ds will probably learn some valuable lessons from this experience. Not ‘rescuing’ today was probably a good time to experiment with this because there was a way for him to ‘fix’ part of the problem too---as he was allowed to go back home to get the shirt. If he was going to be gone on a week long camping trip, I would want to step in to make sure he was prepared so that he didn’t have a week-long of bad experiences…in which case ‘not rescuing’ could backfire.

That is the tricky part though, figuring out when to step in and when to step back. It’s just not a clear cut thing…..which is another reason for us to stay prayerful and in tune with the spirit to help guide us to know when and when not to help. It sounds like you’re on the right track 5D! Pat yourself on the back!

[LostnFound]

I just wanted to say that this camp was really unorganized. I know their leader has been out of town lately and the communication wasn't what it usually is. When all of my boys went on their first camp, they were given a list of exactly what to bring. By reading your post I'm assuming that he was not given a list of what items to bring. The list really helps at my house. They just keep it in their backpacks along with most of the items that they can just keep in there. (flashlight, matches, soap, toothbrush, etc.) All they really have to add to their backpacks is clean clothes and gather their sleeping bags.

I agree with ML on all we can do with our children is to listen to the spirit and feel when it is needed to step in or give them their independence.

The next camp will be much better for your son. He will know what to expect. I feel boyscouts is a huge growing area for our young men. He will "BE PREPARED" next time.

[5ft Diva]

Thank you to you both, I appreciate your words of encouragement. I agree w/ you, LnF, it was very disorganized this time around. My son was advised to look through his book and to just bring the first 10 items of one of the camping lists and I looked through it and realized that he would've left half of his stuff he needed at home if he followed that advice because he really needed to bring every item on the list. The nice thing about camping is that all of this kind of stuff is overshadowed when they get home because they had so much fun. I can't wait to hear about his experience. I really like the idea of keeping the staples in his backpack. I will suggest it to him....or maybe it'll be more effective if BS does it. My DS seems to think I don't know what I'm talking about 1/2 the time. And from what I hear, they think that even more as they get older. "Be Prepared" sure is timely, isn't it?

[Big_Sissy]

:lol I think it's pretty funny really. And yes, he'll learn from this.

I certainly will sit down with him and help him do some preparation. I think maybe a trip to the army navy store might be in order along with getting him some good... errr.. well, maybe not. But He needs more stuff to really be prepared.

[5ft Diva]

Okay, that totally went over my head but helping him get prepared sounds like a good idea.