Derby Day

Yesterday was a pretty darn busy day! The day started early with Bill and the boys heading off to help set up the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby track for a day of car racing. Well, blocks of wood made into 4 wheeled objects that are supposed to be cars, I guess I should say! The boys spent that past few weekends designing their cars, using equipment (with Dad's supervision of course) to cut out the design, and then polishing wheels and painting them to their satisfaction. It's always fun to see the creativity they come up with.

Gregory designed his car to be a skateboard-
Jacob designed his to be a sports car-
And Eric went thematic and designed his as the space shuttle!

So off they went at 8:45 am. I chose to wait until much closer to the 10:30 race time to show up. Reducing the amount of time spent around 27 boys is a necessity, a 'survival of the fittest' move I think. Have you ever spent 2&1/2 hours with 27 boys and their siblings? Loud, yes. Boisterous, yes. Moving around like gerbils on a sugar high, yes. I can say that they at least know how to zip it when the Pack Master calls 'signs up'. They quiet down, put their cub scout signs up and wait to listen to what the Pack Master has to say. However, I really can't say that much for all the parents.

It completely shocked me at how RUDE some of the adults were! Here the Pack Master is, pacing the floor while trying to pass along information pertinent to their own child(ren) and they continue to blab on with whoever is sitting next to them. It was all I could do to keep myself from turning around and yelling at them 'Shut it people, do you even know what this man is telling you? That he is passing along information to YOU about YOUR child that you might find important? That he has spent countless hours teaching your child how to be courteous when an authority figure is talking? You CHOSE to put your child in scouts so they could learn to respect authority other than yours, to respect themselves and those around them. A fine job you're doing of leading by example!'

But instead of doing that I concentrated on my breathing so steam didn't come out my ears. Rude, rude, rude! And if I'm going to vent, I might as well finish it up by saying...how the heck can parents let their sons wear the uniform of a Cub Scout, yet let them leave the house like they just tumbled out of bed and could give a flyin' flip about how they are representing themselves and scouting in that uniform. Sloppy pants, covered by unkempt shirts that fail to remain tucked in, hair that looks like it hasn't been brushed in days. Sigh, I'm sorry but that is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves-that parents aren't instilling in their kids that first impressions really DO count. This whole kumbaya thought that 'you can be whoever you want to be and people need to accept you however you are, no matter that it seems you could care less about yourself, you just go right on ahead and look like a lazy slop son'. AAAHHHHHH......

Well, perhaps I should post the happier stuff about the Derby in my next post.....when I am more rational and calm :-) Besides, the boys derby cars are still in the freezing cold truck outside and I need to get some pictures of the cars close up. That felt good......if only I could make them read it.