Lately I’ve heard a lot of parents bagging on the Girl Scouts, an organization that I have found to be really empowering and fun for my daughters and their friends. So today I wrote this post for the New York Times’ Motherlode blog about why Girl Scouts rock.
There are even more reasons that I love Girl Scouts than the ones in the article:
- Girl Scouts allow adults to model service. Isn’t it funny how high schoolers are supposed to put in all this service time these days, but adults are increasingly too busy with work to do volunteer work? Girl Scouts has a desperate leader shortage, leading to lots of girls who want to participate sitting on a waiting list. Even though you’re busy, consider becoming a leader.
- Girl Scouts nurture female friendships. Research has shown that female frienships strengthen women in times of stress. In school, your daughter may have different classmates every year, but her troop stays together year after year, giving girls the opportunity to form a lasting bond that they can fall back on when middle school and high school get rough.
- Leading Girl Scouts has broadened my horizons. I became a leader for my daughters, but in the course of doing so, I’ve learned how a nationwide distribution network works (cookie sales), how to keep an audience engaged (leading meetings), and I’ve had the opportunity to network with all kinds of women who I would not have met on my own.
The Miles Mom 