*Yea*
I'm just tired of it. After seven years of playing cookie mom (okay, six, as I did have that one year when I wasn't in charge) I'm ready for it to be over. I wrote an article about the role of Cookie Mom in the current Winter Issue of CapeWomenOnline magazine (read my story here.)
But... I keep signing up. I promised my daughter I'd stick with scouts as long as she wants to be a Girl Scout. She's learning lots of positive values and skills, and having fun. Selling cookies is part of that - it helps build confidence, helps them learn to interact with adults, to make a business plan, to set goals, and to speak up and make their voices heard.
The cookies help pay for the crafts, and the badges, and the camping trips. For example, I had to go to the Girl Scout shop the other day, to get all the badges and patches the girls have earned so far and what I know they'll earn by the end of the school year. Cookies paid for it all, but sometimes it's the leader who foots the bill. Or the parents.
The next time you walk past a Scout selling cookies, and think $4 is a lot for one box, remember all the positive things that one box of cookies can do. People spend $4 for their morning Starbucks, which is gone in 15 minutes. The cookies last longer (most of the time) and the lessons learned last a lifetime.
One of my friends is a cookie mom. Her sentiments parallel yours. But you're both great role models for your girls.
ReplyDeleteWe've bought a few too many boxes this year :-) The girls and the cookies are hard to resist.
It's the MOST wonderful Time of the Year!!! :-) I ordered from my neice in Massachusetts, and she is holding onto them for me until we roll through there in our RV in May - well, I HOPE they will still be there when we get there....I was a Girl Scout :D
ReplyDeleteI was the cookie mom for our troop for two years. Nothing like having 2000 boxes of cookies stacked up in the basement! They sure are good, though!
ReplyDeleteSince I am traveling and writing in the Philippines, it is sad that I missed out on this year's treat of Girl Scout cookies. Wait, tell me the mint thins were the most popular again.
ReplyDeleteYou're partially right about Starbucks (Fourbucks)and cookies; I can munch a box of thins before I finish my latte! Alas, I guess I am stuck with some Keebler chocolate chip nabs until further notice.
Hi Jeremy! Thin mints are always the number one cookie - for a booth you have to order at least 5 cases, as opposed to one case for some other flavors. Caramel Delights (Samoas to some of you) are the number 2 flavor, with their combo of caramel, chocolate and coconut!
ReplyDeleteAnd interestingly enough, Keebler is trying hard to imitate Girl Scout cookies - their revamped Grasshopper is close, adn they even have one that looks like a Samoa. Stop and Shop actually set up a display of the new Keebler cookies right near where our booth always is, as if to let people know they could switch when cookie season was over!