cubmom

I am 47, and I have carried a pocket knife in my purse ever since I was 16. I find it invaluable, and cannot imagine being without it. I will never forget the time my son and I were in Home Depot, and I was buying a length of rope - the poor fella that was attempting to cut the rope was using a pitifully dull knife. I reached into my purse, retrieved my *always sharp* knife, and sliced cleanly thru the rope. The guy was amazed - he said "man that's a sharp knife you got there". I smiled at him and said "What good is it if it's not sharp?" and then took my rope and left. My son never forgot that either. My son has two Swiss Army knives, but only carries them to Scout functions - never anywhere else. He loves to whittle though.

mk9750 - you are right - you DID strike a nerve with me. I get extremely frustrated with many (if not most) parents today that prefer to parent in a "hand's-off" fashion. You know the kind - the *Oh let's buy'em an electric scooter and a game boy and then he will stay busy and leave us alone* type of parenting. I took your reply as criticism of the very thing I work so hard at - ensuring that my son has a very well-balanced and meaningful, fun childhood. My son has had his share of hammered thumbs, believe me. He also has a great memory of carving his initials, with his own knife, into a big ole tree up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on one of our many hikes. I do believe my "approach" is on target, but I always appreciate hearing ideas from other parents, and if your feeling is that kids are too pampered today, I do agree. I am no perfect parent, but I am dedicated to providing my son with the skills, knowledge, and values he needs to be a happy productive adult. TwoCubDad - wow that sounds like an aweshome shop. I inherited the woodworking bug from my father, but it is a passion that is only occasionally indulged due to lack of space (darn it). My son has a whole crateful of scraps that I keep adding to, for his many "creations" he has come up with, but we are pretty much resticted to working outside - and it's too darn cold here right now! Currently he is working on a tree fort, and quite proud of it too. I offer him tips, when asked, but it is his project - not mine. Of course, he has a hard time believing that Mom, being a *girl*, worked on a tree fort when she was a kid. Hmmmph. :-)

mk9750 - you should know that everyone is not so *blessed* as to have a workshop, a bandsaw, or even a place to PUT a bench vise. Most of us do this work in the kitchen - at least that is the case in MY house. "Sanding and painting isn't going to cause lost digits" - Of course not, and when we are able to any work outside, he does so. He did ALL of the sanding himself. ALL of it. I put on the last coat of paint that went on - *I* sprayed it, and *I* I failed to shake the can, so *I* screwed up the paint job. Also, my son has every one of his derby cars in an honored spot in his bedroom. So don't make so make so many assumptions - you know what they say about making assumptions. And if you think I want memories of my kitchen floor being stained black, or that nick in the cabinet over there from where the saw slipped, you're wrong. You are going a bit overboard here - get off your high horse and come back down. As far as child-rearing, I am completely confident that I have set the bar very high for my son, so you don't even want to go there. This is WAY off topic now, so I'll just close now. Again, thanks for all the advice everyone.

Sounds like you have a good environment for you guys to work in. No way would I let my son use a dremel, in our current setting. I don't have the space to set up a proper "shop", so any work that needs to be done is completed in less-than-adequate conditions, with plenty of room for getting in trouble. If I had a workshop, he could certainly handle more of the actual woodwork himself, with me supervising. Unfortunately most of the work we do takes place on the dining room table. And I LIKE that table.

Yeah kwc57 - yeah - what you said. mk9750 - I certainly did not *misspeak*. You don't really mean that you let your kids loose with spray paint and saws do you? Obviously my son does as much as he can. But the stuff where he can get into trouble is my responsibility. Personally I wish the rules stated that the cars had to be build by kids alone, with NO help. Obviously the cars would look far inferior, with very simple designs, but it sure would make my life easier! I did sand the car back down - pretty much to the wood - and started over. I did not use any primer as I just don't have the time now. I sanded it pretty good tho - and the second (very thin) coat is on. I had thought about using a clear coat - but did not see one in the same enamel base that this spray paint is. I figured I'd have to use the same type. Thanks for the advice!

Of course it's for the kids. That's why I'm knocking myself out over it, right? :-) Actually, this is his dad's (my ex) fault. He's a crab and wants nothing to do with the derby. GRRRRRR..... Anyway - guess I'll try sanding one more time when I get home (sure hope it's dry) and then give it another go.

I was tring to get a nice smooth finish on my son's car. We used the gloss spray enamel, and I was sanding between each coat. Unfortunately I guess we did not sand well enough initially, and these darn grooves kept reappearing with each coat. I said the heck with it and decided that one last coat would be it, but now I have a terrible mess (maybe I didn't shake the can enough - don't know what happened but it came out all bumpy) I tried to wipe off the last coat, off course now I have to sand again and repaint. I think maybe I have TOO many coats on it now - if I want to strip the paint off and start with primer (like I should have done to begin with!!) what is the quickest way to do this? It's just a small (7" x 2") pine car, but the derby is getting close and we are running out of time!! I can only work on it at night after work, so I just don't have time for all this drying between coats darn it. But we really wanted it shiny and smooth....any advice?? I am definitely no expert when it comes to paint!

Well I have presented the idea of dens using the dues for fund their activities. Actually, since we have dues paid in 2 payments of $25 each, I suggested that the den take the frist payment and the pack take the second. But one of the leaders brought up a good point...if I let the den leaders collect the money, then I have no way to account for that money...and no way to show that $25 expense. I am still going to have to manage these darn dues (and fighting THAT battle again does not appeal to me at all!) this year...no way around it. But...I will turn over the payments to the dens, expense the $25, and let them manage their own expenses. That will ease some of the burden, at least.

Thanks all. I did find the list - and it is 40 "emblems" (not patches - excuse me). So we will simply use a creative name for one of them. Thanks.

I was informed today that there is an official list of patrol names somewhere that the boys need to choose from. The reasoning is that there are patches that are already available for those names, and if you decide to use an "original" name, then you must pay to have a patch designed. Good grief - does it really get this complicated? I was under the impression that the boys could come up with their own name - and I didn't even know they had to have a matching patch. Does anyone know the answer to this?

Yaworski - yes there is an option to forgo the prizes - you get an additional percentage of profits - I forget what the number is - but it goes into your Scout store account. Scoutnut - yes you understood me corrrectly. I think this is the 4th (maybe 5th) year of our pack, and then this past summer several of the leaders decided to create a troop - but I never understood it to be a completely separate entity. There was some discussion - a couple of the leaders thought that we should take some of the pack funds to set up the troop (and I actually posted a thread about that because I had no idea how that should be done) but nothing was ever decided - as usual - so they have been operating out of the same account. At this point I have no idea what to do, and I doubt the committee will have any "meeting of the minds" on it anytime soon. Oh well.

ScoutNut, and Yaworski - the reason we do our own prizes is that somewhere along the way we decided that we could get more "bang for the buck" if we took the additional percentage by forgoing the traditional prizes, and did our own. I do think the boys like our choices better.

Eagle74 - thanks for all the info. I agree that the committee should not leave these decision to me - I keep trying to push for them to make the decisions - but I do think it is appropriate for me to provide some guidance, and I thank all of your for your most helpful replies! I very much like the idea of the dens collecting their own dues to provide them their funding - that is the best idea yet.

Whoah - thanks for opening my eyes on the Pack vs. Troop. Boy do I feel stupid. Somehow I never got that from all the conversations we had in our pack. Well, that is even more interesting then...I am managing one bank account, but I guess I am NOT tracking expenses correctly. Great. This is getting to be a great big headache!

Rooster7 - all those costs you mentioned were included in the budget - absolutely. This problem is more with UNBUDGETED expenditures that occur within the dens, without approval. And the budget is approved each year (in reality, this is only the 2nd year we have had a budget) and I guess we are in the process of approving one for this year. We included a small amount last year, for the whole pack, for den activity/supplies. Obviously we overspent that by a great deal. So I like the idea of the $/den or $/boy limit. I will suggest that. Also I agree on the snacks - I don't know where the idea came from to start purchasing snacks for every meeting...I hope we can squash that. I just don't want people getting pissed off at me (and it always falls to me) when I tell them that they have overspent their limit.