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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Hubby and the older boys went on their first non-official Scout camping trip this morning. I have to admit, I miss them already. I didn’t expect to feel that way, but here I am with only half the family in the house and I’m wishing we were all together. This is even more surprising considering that I was stomping around the store last night thinking that a break from boys would be a good thing. (I do have the younger boys with me but they’re so busy playing that I haven’t gotten any of their attention yet.)

Getting ready for this trip has been a stretching experience. The guys brought home a list of necessary equipment 3 or 4 weeks ago. Being that lists and planning are an obsession my thing, I immediately went through the list and cross-checked with the official handbook. Then I threw them both across the room because many of the item titles were vague. Dude! I need details!!!

Because we agreed that Boy Scouts is Hubby’s domain (I’m doing Cub Scouts with the younger boys) for now, I had to step back and let them handle preparations. I did help with some of the shopping last night and went over list/packing this morning, but really this was a time for the boys to start handling things themselves while I stopped being bossy let them shine.

I think we did pretty well, overall. We’ll see what they think when they get back tomorrow. They didn’t have every single item on the packing list, but we covered the basics. It’s a start.

The stretching for me was having the boys pack their own things. I could totally have taken over this enterprise and done a great job. But that doesn’t help them, does it? So I stuck my hands in my pockets and tried real hard to shut. up. and let them get ready.

An overnight camping trip is a small event in the overall scheme of things, but it’s a milestone for us. My boys are growing up.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents of boys who are growing up.