Saturday 30 July 2016

Did I do the wrong thing? Am I selfish?


So, I'm juggling some guilty feelings within myself these last few days. My DD is 6 and has been in Girl Scouts for the last year, this will be her second year. The first couple months were great. No issues! I volunteered and paid to have outdoor training to take the girls camping. Cookie season came around and I volunteered to be cookie mom. I slung cookies like no tomorrow and our troop brought in over $2k in profit. I put us in a contest that won us $250 for the troop. These started getting a little fishy. Other parents would discuss that we were constantly being hounded for money left a right even after this profit, they would also state that they were upset over a new addition to the troop during cookie time after being told no new girls were allowed (the new girl and parent was a friend of the leader so we were told that she makes the decisions), and parents were upset on the way that the leader spoke to them. I decided to say something to the leader about the above things, and was the scapegoat for the other moms. The leader refused to give us any financial reports. We all dropped the issue after the leader finally agreed to pay the girls camporee fees out of the money we got from cookie season. It still grinded my gears that I had my name signed to over $15k worth of cookies and she would not allow me to see the bank financials making sure all the money was placed in the account, but I dropped it for the sake of the girls and their camping trip. Things happened on the camping trip regarding the way that the leader spoke with parents, only one said anything to her about it, but no apologies from her (about anything ever).Radio silence during the summer and then suddenly, we are asking for x y z fees for the troop starting at the end of August. They are asking for troop dues for the year (not for the National membership but just for the troop). With my calculations, we should have at the very very very least $1,750 left in the bank. So, I asked nicely if we could receive a financial report of have a meeting regarding the next year and the financials so everyone is on the same page this year to explain why we need troop dues. I'm met with the reasoning that I'm being rude with asking for information and that I should be assured that the leadership teams ideas should be good for everyone, etc. etc. I replied back that our children and the parents that pay for their experiences deserve to see at least a simplified copy of the reports and that I wouldn't be paying the annual troop dues and other expenses until I received them and if that this is an unreasonable request, then I will need to pull my daughter from the troop. I then receive a reply that I'm being ridiculous and if I want to pull her, here's the way to do it.So I am in the process of removing her from that troop and forming my own since my daughter has asked me in the past why couldn't we have our own troop so I can spend more time with her scouting. I formed the troop that I enjoyed my time with them last year, but that my daughter and I were moving on to try our own troop and that we hope we see them around at different events. Radio silence after that (even from those that asked me to stand up to these issues multiple times so they didn't have to confront them).I have been having terrible anxiety over this decision. I feel like I should have just stayed quiet, paid the money and started silently stepping back from volunteering even though the reason my daughter and I joined was to spend more time together. I feel scared about starting my own troop because I work full time, will be going to school online full(ish) time, and now will be partaking on weekly/biweekly meetings as a girl scout leader. I don't want to let my daughter down and I want to experience girl scouts with her in the ways that she wants. She didn't bond extremely close with many of the girls so she is find moving on to find new friends, but I still feel like I failed her by removing her from the troop somehow. I feel like I stomped on her opportunities since she was the second highest cookie seller last year and now has to forfeit the money she made to the old troop. I feel like I should feel relieved to get away from a toxic situation, but I still feel guilty.Thanks for taking time to read this. I appreciate you.tl;dr Got tired of toxic troop leader, removed daughter from girl scout troop to start own troop, daughter's ok with that idea, but i still feel guilty via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2aF7jvZ

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