Bad Parent's Club

Blimey I was in danger of missing my "next post in Q1" deadline.*



Well as usual lots going on, too much to write about and not enough time.

No1 son has been going to cubs for well over a year, he goes every week and last year got an award for the highest attendance. He is not a fairweather cubscout. The cubs do lots of excellent activities and camps etc and one of the things he was really looking forward to was the upcoming "Kip on a ship". This involves two cub packs spending the night on HMS Belfast and the day in London visiting the CBBC studio all in a fantastic trip. We put his name on the list for this trip last year and had heard nothing since. A couple of weeks ago when I picked him up from Cubs he tried to tell Akela on the way out that he hadn't been given a letter with the final details on it like the others had, but she was busy. I waited until she was free then asked her myself, she said she didn't have any more and would send one out. Half an hour later she was on the phone asking if we had received a letter to confirm No1 son's place etc, we hadn't. The bottom line was, no letter, no confirmation, no place. He couldn't go. He was devastated**. Of course in No1 son's eyes this was all our fault and we are the world's worst parents, why can't he go, he is deprived etc etc etc.
It seems we somehow got missed of the list when the letters went out. Part of the problem is that Akela runs a cub pack of 40 boys all on her own and she didn't have time to chase up people who didn't respond, there is a parents help rota but some of the parents seem to think that this is optional.
So in order to help Akela and possibly prevent any future "administrative errors" I have volunteered to help out at Cubs on a regular basis. There is a fine line between brave and stupid. So far I have survived two sessions and it hasn't been as bad as I dreaded (having three boys of my own is good training) although I've seen a different (not so nice) side to some of his schoolfriends who are in the cubpack. Anyway I've said I'll help out as much as I can, work permitting and I'll just have to see how it goes.

* it was over a week ago that I started writing this post and I realise that now I now have actually missed that deadline. Another nail in the coffin of my career as a journalist.

** just to put this in perspective, he also is devastated if he misses an episode of Ben 10 or Pokemon Diamond and Pearl or finds out that his brothers have gone to Burger King without him (this happened last night, and resulted in tears and sulking in his room). I shouldn't laugh.