Scouting is fun . . . or it should be

In summer it's important to make scouting fun. We can worry about required merit badges and all that classroom stuff in the winter, but if it's not fun in the summer it's not worth doing. With that goal in mind I took the Scouts to Provo Gun Club for some shotgun shooting. "Who wants to shoot first?" I shouted (because we all had earplugs in). Crickets. They all talked tough, but when it came time to shoot every one of them was afraid of the gun. That's why it was so fun for me to see them start hitting clay pigeons, and then eagerly wait for their turn to shoot next. Only 3 of the 6 qualified for the merit badge but I was glad to have taught them a "man skill".

This weekend I took them camping up Diamond Fork Canyon. Matt Staker came and brought rappelling gear. If every dad was as awesome as Matt my job would be easy. He coached them down a little 25 foot cliff and then took the braver boys up to rappel off Diamond Fork Arch. I made the mistake of taking Buddy, who insisted on climbing everything I did, so I had to escort him back down rather than make the 80 foot rappel off the arch. We enjoyed some tinfoil dinners, dutch oven cobbler that was burned on the bottom and then got up and hiked to the hot pots in the morning. That place has changed only a little in the 15 years since I was there. People built some new pools. The hike was longer than I remembered it. That was the ideal overnight camp: short but fun and memorable.

Matt gets Adam Blank hooked up

Kaden Staker descends the training cliff

Charles Reid goes over the edge

Aiden Rice rappels off the arch

Soaking in the hot pots: Charles Reid, Sam Baldwin, Aiden Rice, Adam Blank, Jack Baldwin

I don't know what the church will end up doing with scouting. If it gets to where they allow gay adult leaders maybe the church will bail out. I don't have any problem with allowing boys with same sex attraction to participate. I don't think it's an issue because at these younger ages most boys are still figuring it out. As long as they are living a morally straight life I don't see a problem there. For me it's been fun to be involved. If I told my wife "I think I'll go camping this weekend with some buddies", that would never fly, but if I tell her "The Scouts need me to go camping this weekend" she's OK with it.

There's one thing I hate about being Scoutmaster: EagleMom. She's determined to make sure her boy gets his Eagle before he turns 14. Never mind that he only comes to Scouts half the time and misses most of the campouts because of sports or family activities. It's still MY fault when he doesn't have enough leadership time or campouts to qualify. She acts like Scouts is just another hurdle that SHE must overcome in order to turn her kid into a successful person. She sends him to merit badge classes so she an check the boxes, and then her kid is a pain whenever we work on anything because he already did it. She sucks all the joy out of it for both her kid and me. If it's not fun you're not doing it right.