Last night Hamish burrowed up from a Meercat in the Scout troop to a Cub. To those not familiar with Scouting this means that he is now old enough for the bigger group, the Cubs, and so goes through a ceremony where he is presented with his new badges and welcomed into the troop.
It’s almost the equivalent of telling him that he’s a big boy now.
Much changes with this group. The first being that parents don’t attend every meeting as we did for Meerkats and naturally we worry that our boys or girls will struggle.
Of course they won’t!
They have their leaders, Scout helpers and their Cub peers and most importantly, their friends, to help them learn and grow along the way.
Independence
Yesterday, before the ceremony, Hamish needed to get dressed out of his casual Cub outfit into his Cub uniform which he’s never worn or tried on. ( I bought it and hung it up …what was I thinking right?)
I immediately started panicking and rushed to help him get dressed, I would need to remove tags and, as we don’t use school uniforms, see that he knew how to button up the pants and get that belt on!
Well!
I was politely told ” MOM! THIS IS THE BOYS TOILET!”
Yes, we are at that age where having your mom any where near the boys toilet let alone try to help you remove tags and get dressed is mortifying.
“I CAN DO THIS” came the next exasperated reply.
If you’ve ever tried to remove label tags in a rush, you’ll understand that I was doubting this answer, but I left him to figure it out and hoped that he would use the common sense I’ve taught him to get those pants on and belt buckled. After all that’s what us moms do when our kids tell us they’ve got this.
A few minutes into our dressing room conversation his little friend came in to change and borrow Hamishs other shirt, I stepped out of the bathroom completely.
I’ve got you
Stepping out had me wondering why it was taking Hamish soooo long to slip into a shirt and shorts.
These are two seven year old boys with no concept of the fact that the ceremony was waiting for them and I popped my head in to see how far along we were and if anyone needed help.
What I found was the sweetest display of friendship.
Hamish did in fact not have this as he claimed and both boys were trying to figure out how to get the belt ( which has a pull through and pin to keep it in place not a buckle) to stay tied.
Watching them have each other’s back was so cute. Hamish lending his shirt and his friend helping with the belt. Both eager to see that the other was OK and ready for their big day. Both working together for the success of the other.
And their kindness and support didn’t stop there. I watched them as they checked each other’s outfits, guided each other and later when playing rock, paper, scissors, to see who burrowed up first… Hamish lost and his friend let him go first.
Both boys made sure their friend was OK and smiled throughout the other’s ceremony.
Friendship
Isn’t this what we want for our children, and ourselves.
Friends who love us like family, who have our backs when we can’t buckle that belt, who aren’t afraid of our success and who are our loudest cheerleaders.
I don’t know about you
But
That’s the circle of friends I want in my corner.
