I’m so glad! I watched it once through and then immediately made Tom watch it with me 🤣

The removal of the swimsuit portion was probably best for everyone, though.

I realize teachers deal with kids who may have a wide spectrum of motivation to not piss off the teacher. But also I think adults in general need to think more on the difference between "kids having fun in a way that's only disruptive because of the context" and "kids being willfully antagonistic."

All of this to say, I'm not a child development professional, but I found a fun/playful way to let the kids know that I actually was serious and I needed them to dial back disruptive behavior.

And it seems to me that people with actual training in educating children could also do that?

But then that became one of our inside jokes as a group and at the end of camp a couple of the kids drew me a cartoon of us sitting around the table, and then the dragon comes when summoned.

I treasure it.

This generally gets the kids' attention snapped back to me, because they're wondering if I really am going to send a level 20 dragon to eat one of their characters.

I have never had to actually let the party SEE the dragon.

I DID have to name the dragon after a particularly disruptive meme, tho.

I have a high tolerance for table chaos as long as everyone is having fun, but eventually, kids being kids, we'll reach a point where gentle reminders aren't cutting it and now I'm annoyed.

At that point, I say something like, "You hear the beating of giant wings in the distance... and roaring?"

oooh, the colors on that dragon!

I'm not really able to camp, so my volunteering with the Troop is going to have to take other forms, but I'm really proud of the moms in our troop who are stepping up, whether they have daughters or not, to make sure that girls have a great Scouting experience too.

Cub Scouts emphasize parent participation with the Scout, but once they bridge over to the Troop, the program is more youth-led and parents are encouraged to step back. But adults still supervise, and in a coed overnight event, there needs to be a ratio of women leaders to girls on the trip.

Another note on this: Because Scouting America has developed really robust youth protection policies 👀, in order to fully include girls in its programs, they frequently need more *moms specifically* to volunteer as adult leaders, to ensure an appropriate scout-adult ratio for things like campouts.

Our troop is in a deep/blue city and populated by families who share our values, so we have it easier than a lot of troops, but the Scouts in redder areas need yall just like the school boards and town councils do.

Going fully co-ed hasn’t been without some controversy in our troop, which is a 50 year old program with a lot of really dedicated, thoughtful men in leadership who also come from Scouting families and are emotionally invested in the tradition of “Boy Scouts.”

But they are making the leap forward.

For the record, we are thrilled about this, and strongly believe that it best supports our son’s development into a kind, thoughtful man to share Scout spaces with girls.

And if the military gets less opportunity to treat the Scouts as a farm team, all for the best as far as I’m concerned.

I cannot bear to be confronted with the evidence of what my Diet Coke habit costs us.