Sunday, October 21, 2007

Teenagers

In this day and age when everybody is keen to moan about teenagers, their manners, their binge drinking, their clothes, their lack of respect etc I thought I would write a post about the good teenagers can do. As many of you know my children are heavily involved in the scouting movement. Dillon and Mollie are scouts and Ben is a beaver. These activities would not exist if it were not for the leaders who give up their evenings and weekends to run their groups. Dillon and Mollie's troop is led entirely by young adults who are in university. Their main leader was eighteen when he first started as a general leader and took the helm of the troop a year later taking the troop to the Czech Republic that year. These young leaders build up a great rapport with the teenage scouts as they bridge the gap between teenagers and parents and they set a great example to our children. Last week Dillon and his friend Rory were asked if they'd be young leaders with the cub troop and without hesitation they both said yes. This will involve giving up an evening and weekends to help with children aged eight to eleven which is a big commitment as they are both in Junior Cert year (their first state examinations). Of course I am one proud mama, so remember those hairy lads you may see on the bus could have hearts of gold underneath their baggy, black t-shirts.

18 comments:

Kellan said...

Well said. My son is in Cub Scouts. My brother is a scout leader any my nephew is in Boy Scouts. Good post. See ya.

Anonymous said...

Good for Dillon. I know my pre-teen has a heart of gold too. Well said. :)

ChrisB said...

I'm not in the least bit bias and I know Dillon and Rory will make very good young leaders. Well done to them it is a big commitment but they will have loads of fun as well.

Yvonne said...

Good on them! I still feel like a teenager inside so I have a lot of time for them. Congratulations to Dillon!

Alix said...

That's really great of them to give up so much of their time to help others - it's a shame everyone is generally looking at and talking about the downside and we don't hear about good deeds more often.

Well done Dillon

Anonymous said...

That is so great. I think there are a lot of great teens out there - and more should be said about them!!!

Way to go Dillon!

my4kids said...

Since we moved up here all the kids are in scouts Izzak is a boy scout, Joshua is a webelo scout and the girls are brownies. I am so looking forward to them selling girl scout cookies in January.
Teens can be really great a lot of it has to do with their parents so Dillon being one of those good ones is a testament to your parenting skills!

Anonymous said...

Dillon, you're an inspiration!

Well done!

Steffi said...

That´s great and Congratulations to Dillon!

FH said...

Well said and well written! I agree. inspite of how they dress, there are some good kids out there.
Thank God, my kids are sensible ones too! There are kids here who start smoking at the age 12! Scary.

frannie said...

Dillon does have a heart of gold!

I am so proud of him and you for raising him

great job to both of you

Anonymous said...

That's so wonderful, Beccy! You have every reason to be proud.

Sam said...

Proud aunt too

Anonymous said...

That's awesome beccy!

A very proud mama momment indeed!!
Good for Dillion and Rory. They are true inspirations.

sallywrites said...

Well said. Praise where it is due!

~ej said...

that's wonderful, well done to them!! they're an inspiration :-)

Emma in Canada said...

I'm with you on this one Beccy. Taylor has just started pathfinders and when she finishes in 2 years she can become a junior leader, just in time for Saoirse to start Sparks. She hopes to be one of her leaders.

Do your kids go to the big jamborees? There is one in Toronto in 2010 that Taylor's group is hoping to go to.

Unknown said...

That's so lovely, Beccy! So encouraging to hear;)!!