So, that wasn't good.

[flea]

I had to leave work because I was so stressed out about the girl scout meeting yesterday, and walked home sobbing.  Then I successfully managed to nap while roofers were working on the back porch.  (Since I'd been up since 4:30 am worrying about girl scouts.)

Of course, the meeting was fine.

So, on the list of things that can reduce me to gibbering idiocy?
1.  Dentists
2.  Girl Scouts

Xposting from Facebook, where many of y ou probably already saw it, for the immortality factor:
Dillo: "Mom, I forgot about the toilet and I went in the sink!"

Comments

[loligo]

Okay, besides the incredibly annoying lack of institutional support, can you pin down what it is about Girl Scouts that gets to you? Would you be feeling similarly if the same girls were just coming over to your house to play?

I will admit to taking a very half-assed laid-back approach to meeting planning, especially when the weather's bad and we can't do science/nature stuff outside. One week I brought a CD player and a bunch of different styles of music (disco, ballet, and South African music) and we had a dance party. Another week I brought face paints and we just painted on each other for an hour and a half. Are they learning anything? Who knows. But they're having fun, so hopefully they'll stick around to work with some more motivated leader in the older grades.

[flea]

Yeah, mr. flea pointed out that it's the same stress I have about throwing a birthday party for my kids, only: every other week! I know it's not rational or healthy; but it does seem to be the way I am set up. Damn those are some nice little girls, though. I was spontaneously hugged several times last night.

My co-leader and I are going to get together after Christmas and talk about what's working and what's not for each of us. She's lovely, but one of my issues is I need things planned in detail in advance or I freak, and she only works part-time and tends to be ready to plan meetings at 3pm the day of (when I am at work and have already melted down from stress) so we need to find a solution (alternating taking lead, I guess) that works for both of us.

[loligo]

We meet every week, and I'm the only one doing the planning. (I do have a helper, but she leads her own troop of older girls, so I try not to ask her to do too much for mine.) Also, we meet after school, so it's not like parents are going out of their way to get their kids to the meeting or anything; I'm going out of *my* way to provide their kids with after-school care. So that's all part of why I give myself permission to keep things low-key.

We were supposed to have our holiday party today, for our last meeting of the year, but school is canceled due to ice, and honestly I am not the least bit disappointed. I do really like the girls, now that I've gotten to know them all, but if you count my travel time, that's two and half hours of my day that I just got back! Which I will spend working on my Yuletide story!

[sara]

Hon, this may be a sign it's time to draw the whole Girl Scouts episode to a close.

I know that when C. and I started doing stuff like that around church, we decided to stop going, and I must say, while I miss the worship I do not miss the waking up at 3 am with my stomach in knots.

[flea]

Yes, that was what the sobbing was about on the walk home. I have huge shame issues around quitting things.

Well, maybe we'll have to move next summer... I could got into the ex-Girl Scout Leader witness protection program!

[sara]

Quitting things is okay, and frankly? Sometimes one is a better mom when one sets an outside commitment down and gets back to stupid things like making funny faces in the soap bubbles and going to the library. Casper will not grow up to lead a life of failure if you are not the Best Girl Scout Leader Ever.

(p.s. next time I am in a swivet about something like this you will give me this pep talk, right? Because God knows sooner or later I will be in similarly dire straits.)