Glad Cub Scouts is gearing back up

[Scoutfish]

As I have mentioned before,our pack is a "summer break" pack. We just do a fun activity in June, July and August.

 

 

Anyways, I just got back from vacation in Georgia with my wife's side of the family.

 

We rented two cabins in Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, Ga.

 

If you are not familiar, it's about an hour east of Atlanta on I-20 and about 1 1/2 hours west of Augusta, ga on I-20.

 

Anyways, it's not the mountains,. but this particular area is like the foothills.

 

So we had two cabins. Myself, my wife and son plus my Brother and sister in-law( wife's sis) and their two kids, the son of which is in our pack too.

 

The other cabin had my mother and father in law, plus another sister inlaw, husband and 3 kids, and mom in laws sister. (aunt in law? )

 

Since the mother and father inlaw footed the bill for the cabins, and INSISTED that they buy the groceries against my many protests....I figured they had a free pass on any duties such as driving, cooking, cleaning or entertainemnt.

 

So we arrived Friday night, and I seperated, pattied and cooked 45 hamburger/cheeseburgers, hot dogs, brats. My wife cooked the beans, chilli and set up/ arranged all the condiments and drinks.

 

Everybody else just sat on their butts. Again, my wife's mom and dad had a free pass as far as I am concerned.

 

The next morning, I got up, washed dishes, and started cooking breakfast:

 

30 eggs scrambled, 12 eggs fried, 40 sausage links fried as well as a big pack ( maybe 30 slices?) of bacon, and around 25 panckes cooked, and 16 slices of toast, and a pot of grits.

 

The instructons said it was enough grits to serve 16 people...but( like pancake sizes) that's arguable to me!

 

Everybody eats, and when done, get up and leave their plates , cups, utensils and whatnot EXACTLY where they were sitting. Except my wife and son, and the mother/father in law.

 

I begrudgenly cleaned up the mess.

 

Later, I cooked lunch for this crowd again.Then supper too. I made a Peach Cobbler Dump Cake in my dutch oven and it was gone in no time! Everybody jumped up, got all they could handle, and enjoyed it with vanilla ice cream. Said it was the best!

 

Nobody lifted a finger to clean anything.

 

At this point, I was soooo mad at everybody's lack of help, support or even a simple thank you, that I announced that I was not doing anything else for anybody! My wife was mad too that nobody else bothered to lift a finger.

 

Also, every time you turned around, empty Mountain Dew and Coke cans everywhere. Right where they were drunk at. Made me mad that the teenagers who didn't pay for ANYTHING..drank everything, and left the cans right where they were drunk at. But then again, so did the parents of the teenagers! Go figure!

 

My mother in law is a diabetic, and so is her sister who came to stay with her for a day or two. The next morning, around 6-ish am, I was drinking coffee and not doing anything, when the Aunt in law? ..came over to get eggs and grits. They have to eat in order to take their insulin shots.

 

WEll, I got mad that - out of 8 other children- nobody was going to do anything for the parents who paid for almost everything.

 

So I got up and cleaned dishes ( in a most un-quiet way ), cleaned the kitchen and started cooking again.

 

It's funny: Everybody was sleeping in ( well, that's okay, it's vacation right!) and not doing anything....until the smells of bacon, sausage, grits, pancakes and grits started filling up the cabin.

 

Seems like the gate opened and suddenly, the kitchen was full of hungry people who lined up and started grabbing food.

 

The only reason I had any food for myself was because my wife made sure my share wasn't eaten and she took over pancake duty after she ate.

 

I do not expect a thank you, but you'd of thought one would have been offered. Nobody else cooked, cleaned or made an effort to provide basics.Didn't even bother to help me do it. Except my wife.

 

Come check out time, my sister in law asked why we had to strip the beds, police all towels and washclths to the bathtub, and sweep the floor:

 

"Isn't that why we are on vacation? What are we paying for if we have to do that?"

 

I was taken aback completely! Are you kidding me? Did she honestly and truely think that way?

 

If we all adopted that attitude on vacation...how would we eat, because nobody would cook. We'd wade through trash because nobody cleaned up. Ants and other critters would infest or cabin because of the spoiled rotten food laying about.

 

Okay, I rambled on, so I want to get to the point..of which I have a couple:

 

1) My son, would get his food by himself, eat and then clean up his plate and glass afterward. Might have mised a crumb or two or twelve, but made the effort. He even mentioned to some of the others about cleaning up their mess.

 

When my Bear age nephew ( in our pack) asked why should anybody clean up...my son said: " You are supposed to do your best! That's what scouts do!"

 

Well, I bet I was smiling like a jackass at that comment!

 

2) At pack family campouts, You don't reasonably expect a bunch of cub scouts to clean up, but they at least clean up after themselves. Dens will take turns helping fix and cleaning up.

 

Most of the scouts say thank you when getting food and will tell you that it's good, bad, or just okay , at the very least. I mean, they acknowledge that they have food and recognize you made it.

And at a campout, you go in with the expectation that as a leader or volunteer, you will be part of the 20 that serves the 80.

 

3) At a pack campout, or I guess any kind of scout camping trip....you kinda look at it as a vacation of sorts, but you don't feel that you are entitled to not have responcibility or help out.Well...most of us anyways.

 

Yeah, I still had a good time. Went hiking with my son, went canoeing with my son,fishings, exploring, we cooked on charcoal, on a grill, cooked with a dutch oven and did stuff that didn't involve tv or electronics: charades, card games, skipping rocks on the lake and that kind of stuff.

 

REminded me of camping with the pack.

[perdidochas]

Sounds like you had a good trip. Sounds like your in-laws are leisurely people. I guess they figured Scoutfish would do it all.

[beardad]

At the beginning of the trip, you should have made a schedule with everybody helping out. It is possible that these people are so used to not doing things for themselves that they didn't know they were supposed to help, unless you say something.

 

My wife's uncle has a house down at the ocean. He is gracious enough to invite us down a few times a year. It is usually with other members of my wife's family.

 

Before we even head down there we divide up the meals with each family in charge of providing, cooking and cleaning at least one meal(depends on how long we are there). That way the expectations are already there. there is no tension because somebody isn't pulling there weight, and we can get right down to enjoying "ocean time"

[Scoutfish]

Might have to edit: I meant to add in somewhere that I actually like cooking. At least doing breckfast. I am good at it.

 

Funny thing is though...I never told anybody I would cook all meals.

It was more along the lines of: Nobody was doing anything. NOTHINg at all. Had I not stepped up, I guess the others wouldn't have eaten.

 

I don't mind doing SOME of the cooking, but all? I guess I wouldn't have minde doing all the cooking if somebody else had cleaned up.

Nobody even asked if the could assit me or help me out even a little bit.

 

I get what you mean about making a schedule, but at the same time, nobody scheduled me to cook and clean it all.

 

It was just lazyness.

[Scoutfish]

I guess I know that even on vacation, there are some things that have to be done: have to eat, clean up, shower, etc. My son still has to eat no matter how much I am on vacation.

 

Guess the other parents didn't see it that way. When they take vacation, they turn off ALL responcibility.

 

But other than that,it was a great vacation. Spent great quality time with my wife and son, and even had some great time with the in-laws.(This message has been edited by scoutfish)

[perdidochas]

Beardad,

 

That's what my in-laws did when renting a beach house. Every family did a dinner (family meaning married couple, so in our case, it was 3 generations), which included cleanup, but lunch/breakfast was "every family" to themselves. But, they aren't big breakfast eaters.

 

SFish,

Had you been my brother-in-law, I would have been more than happy to clean up in exchange for fried eggs, bacon and sausage :-) I do think they were rude for not offering to clean up.

[beardad]

The part of your story where everybody is sleeping in, and you got up to do the dishes and make breakfast for your diabetic aunt. I totally thought you were going to say that when they all miraculously woke up from smelling the delicious food, there was only food made for You, your wife, and son and the in-laws. That is probably what I would have done. made just enough. but I am petty that way.

[IM_Kathy]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that Beardad!

 

The way my son's troop does it there is a cook and assistant cook for the campout - they cook and then clean up their prep area while the others all take turns doing their dishes and cleaning up the rest of their area.

 

Our adult patrol does it similar, but we don't have an assigned assistant cook - it just varies based on who is handy and what is needed. The men love my cooking so I end up being cook a lot when I'm camping which is fine with me... I HATE doing dishes!!! But the last couple of campouts we've had this 1 adult attend both and it's amazing how he seems to disappear when it's time to do any of the cooking and cleaning, but is suddenly there when it's time to eat. I had noticed that with his boys - I guess I know where they learned it.

[Horizon]

This is why Kudu says to camp 300 feet from in-laws when on vacation!

 

Glad to hear the Scouting ethics are in your kids - well done to you and your Pack.

[GKlose]

One of the best times I had with my siblings happened during a holiday week when our families were back home visiting mom. Mom decided early on that she thought it would be fair if each one of us each took a night to cook dinner, and we were left on our own to shop and cook. The best part was when the sibling rivalry kicked in and we attempted to outdo each other. Everyone ended up a winner...

 

So in true scoutlike fashion, maybe a duty roster is in order. :-)

 

Guy