Life Lessons and Selling Girl Scout Cookies
I came across an article this morning on CNN that got me thinking. The article was about how many parents are facing ethically dilemmas on whether they should be helping their daughters sell their Girl Scout cookies. The main thrust of the article centered around is it right for parents to help their kids to their work so they can win prizes and is it right for these same parents to be peddling them in their work places? I had never really thought about this much before. In fact, I have even been known to cave and purchase these cookies from coworkers in the past. But this article really got me thinking about several things.For one, what kind lesson is someone teaching their child by doing their work for them? In this example, their daughter voluntarily signed up for the Girl Scouts and along with that takes on the responsibility to periodically sell cookies. Now, its not like the Girl Scouts kick the girl out if she doesn't make a quota, but she may miss out on some small prizes. At the end of the day the money goes to a good cause funding a well respected organization. These days though, I see more adults peddling the wonderfully evil little cookies more than I see young Girl Scouts. To me this seems like cheating. Not only in trying to win a prize, but cheating your child out of learning some good life lessons, like how to interact with people professionally, how to build confidence, how to keep track of money and how hard you have to work to earn certain incentives (e.g. prizes, money, etc). I can't remember the last time I saw girl scouts going door to door, but just yesterday, a guy in our department was making the rounds asking if people wanted to buy Girl Scout cookies. Now, I know that its not always safe to have your kid just wandering door to door, unless you know your neighborhood well, but why can't the parents go with them, but let them handle the sale?
Some argued in the article that their kids just don't have time to do the sales because they are involved in other activities like sports, and other clubs. Well, this sounds like a great opportunity to teach your kid time management and that sometimes you just don't get to do everything that you want too. How are these kids ever going to learn that resources are finite and you have to work hard to get things sometimes? Not everything is going to be a hand out. When I was a kid, I signed up for Boy Scouts. After a few months my parents told me to drop out because I was not keeping up with my obligations and was overloaded with that, helping my dad on the farm, basketball, and school. They could have easily just picked up my projects for me and finished so I could stay in the Scouts but instead they taught me a lesson on making sure I effectively managed my committments.
Another good point I saw in the article was that, maybe the Girl Scouts should stop incenting the girls with prizes and have them raise money for charitable organizations? This would also teach them about helping others.
I thought this article was a good example about how too many parents are sheltering their kids from life's realities and then wonder why these same kids don't understand why things aren't just handed to them when they head out on their own. Or why they can't seem to get their kids to move out on their own! I am not saying kids shouldn't be allowed to have fun, but there should still be room to learn about such things as work ethic, time management, and how to earn the things you want. I would be interested to hear your thoughts! Maybe there is something I am missing?
posted by Heath @ 9:56 AM
3 Comments:
i agree. and i would hope that some parents would actually find it enjoyable to encourage their little ones to achieve things on their own - i can only imagine how proud i would (will?) feel when our kids do great things and we know that it was their own talent and/or hard work that led to the accomplishment. it would be so much more rewarding for both the child AND the parents.
i would feel weird peddling girl scout cookies.. but then again, kelly and i were both guilty of our parents selling subs or whatever to coworkers and extended fam. it just kind of became the "norm" and everybody did it, and then returned the favor for other people's kids later on.
i think when parents help their kids too much by giving them the easy way out, both sides are being cheated out of a wonderful opportunity. the results of that kind of upbringing negatively affect that kid's attitude and gives them that overblown sense of entitlement and laziness in their teenage and adult years. i do, however, feel that sometimes it is inevitable that a child has too much on their plate, and the parents should be willing to lend a hand, while making sure the kid is still involved in some way.
i agree also. i think that it's fine for the parents to help the kids out as a teaching mechanism, but if the kid can't handle the actual obligations of their commitments due to too much on their plate, they need to learn about picking and choosing what is most important or rewarding. i think that the lack of recognition that time and resources are limited is a huge missed learning opportunity when the parents pick up too much slack. i don't think that its awful for parents to bring the sales sheets to their place of work to help out (hey, i wouldnt get cookies at all if not for them!), but the kid better be making efforts on their own or in conjunction with the parents, too, like working the neighborhood or calling family friends. mom circulating the sign up sheet through the cubes shouldn't be the only effort made.
Yeah, I remember my mom helping me sell some pizza's for the basketball team once, so I am not totally innocent either. :) There is definitely an opportunity for setting some boundaries with your kid on this type of thing and letting them learn from the experience. I know that having to handle a lot of my childhood obligations did help me to appreciate when I really earned something rather than when it is handed to me.
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