Rant:
Organizations pimping themselves to kids at school. It seems on the edge of seedily manipulative to get kids FIRED UP with Brightly Colored Stickers! Enticing Brochures! Representative Sales Pitches! I mean, it’s a non-school organization advertising ‘aggressively’ (in my opinion as the parent of a K and 1st grader) in a school situation. Recently it’s those damn Boy Scouts. I’m not sure exactly what the promotion situation is but Drew came home ALL AQUIVER with excitement about Going Camping! Hiking! Roasting Marshmallows! Doing Cool Boy Stuff! and said that He Just HAD to become a Boy Scout and all of the cool kids are doing it.
Ahem. (I feel like Delores Umbridge in Harry Potter. {Ahem, Ahem})
First of all, participating in Boy Scouts is Not Free. You have to pay dues and pay for the mandatory uniform. Also, while the regular weekly activities are included with the dues, the Fun, Cool stuff with Tents and Sharp Pointy Sticks are extra. Of course, Drew doesn’t understand this. He just hears Outdoor Activities and he’s all gung-ho to go. It doesn’t help that for a week solid it seems that we got stuff Every Day in his folder–it was like a political campaign. Of course, it’s not just Boy Scouts. It’s the YMCA, the various sports leagues, the area Karate Studios. And Drew, being Drew, just does not understand why he can’t do all of these fun things. We try to explain that A) He’s already doing soccer–which is not exactly a cheap activity and it involves quite a time commitment. B) It’s not like Boy Scouts is all party zone and marshmallows all of the time. C) We cannot participate in multiple activities with multiple children requiring multiple late nights per week. What he hears is “You are missing all of the fun that all those other kids are having.” I wearily accept that schools allow SOME organizations advertising access to my kids’ backpacks. I don’t LIKE it, but I accept it. What I do not like is that they cannot simply put a brochure into the folder, they have to Sell it with the deliberately misleading videos (it’s not all fun all of the time), aggressive marketing tactics (for a first grader, anyway) and the rah-rah ‘everyone should be a part of this!’ attitude.
It’s not just the Boy Scouts and maybe I’m a overly sensitive to this sort of thing (YA THINK?). But Boy Scouts is the one that Drew’s driving me CRAZY wanting to join. And if they had simply sent home a flyer in his folder, Bryan and I could have discussed it without the eyes shining with excitement and the “PULEEAAAASE, MOM” and the damn sticker on his chest, reminding him that He Should Be a Boy Scout! It may be that he does it and LOVES it. We may end up being a Scout Family. Who knows? It may be that we try it and find out it’s not for us. But of course, that’s not before we pay the dues, buy the mandatory uniform and pay to attend the campout. It may be that this is one of those Life Lesson moments for us in terms of not getting to do everything. But I would have preferred to make that decision without the propaganda and the advertising ploy applied to My First Grader.
I would just like to add “GET OFF MY LAWN!”
All of this leads me to think that I probably need to get Mexican food and get laid tonight because WOOBOY, an entire blog post bashing the Boy Scouts is a New Low for me.
