You Know You’re A Cub Scout Leader When…

Hello fellow Scouters,

Just for fun… I started a forum post in the Scouting Community, that I wanted to share with you. Several posters added their thoughts, and all were funny.

So, without further adieu (because apparently the paragraph above must be adieu),

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“You know you’re a Cub Scout leader when…”

 – You spend more time at the craft store than the sporting goods store.

 – You can’t throw or give anything away because you might use it for a meeting one day.

 – You pack your car with meeting supplies so full that there’s not enough room for your son.

 – You wonder why “signs-up” doesn’t work at home.

 – You spend your day thinking about kerchief slides.

 – You read Boy’s Life more than your son.

 – You meal-plan for your next campout as soon as you get home from a campout.

 – Your patch collection rivals your son’s collection.

 – You can’t wait for the next Baloo’s Bugle to be published.

 – When someone says “Family vacation to get away from it all”, you think “pack campout” or “council family campout”.

 – You enjoy wearing cotton/polyester blends.

 – You use the following when you speak: UC, CM, CC, DE, CLS, YPG, GSS, COR.

 – When you see a group of boys, you immediately think “recruits”.

 – Your biggest wardrobe decision lately: bolo tie or kerchief.

 – You know what the 11th essential is.

 – Your waiting for National to create more training classes since you’ve taken all the current ones.

 – You always have one or two songs ready to go at all times.

 – You just don’t understand why people aren’t as into Scouting as you are.

 – Your morning ritual: read the newspaper and read Scouting blogs.

 – Your garage and/or home office are filled with Scouting stuff.

 – Not only do you know your knots, you can tie them backwards while teaching them.

 – You know how many degrees a charcoal burns.

 – You NEVER do Scouting things at work.

 – You wear more than one hat in the pack.

 – You or someone you know owns a drill press and/or a band saw.

 – Your favorite colors are blue and gold.

 – You get more Scouting-related e-mail than personal e-mail or spam.

 – You would choose Philmont over Hawaii for your summer vacation.

 – Give you some felt, pipe cleaners, and a glue gun and you are MacGyver.

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Our friend in Scouting Liberty added the following funny ones:

– Most of your browser’s bookmarks/favorites are comprised of scouting links and/or project ideas.

– The idea of a campfire without songs is as foreign to you as going more than a week without saying, “And don’t forget your books next week!”

– Kids flock to you like seagulls to bread crusts… and you can face the hungry little flock without fear showing on your face.

– “Date night” = Round Table with your spouse.

– You solicit donations of things like 35mm film canisters, Tic-Tac boxes, & empty oatmeal boxes.

– You begin to wear blue and bright yellow more than any other colors in your wardrobe… except maybe tan.

– At birthday parties, class volunteering, and other events where large amounts of kids are present, you have to restrain yourself from making the Scout Sign to try to get the kids to settle and listen.

– You have had occasion to say with excitement, “Ooh, that’s a great idea for a skit!”

– You know who Buttons the Radical Boy Scout is.  (Alright that one might be a stretch, but I’m a big fan of Buttons, so there it is.)

– You can think up a fun game to play on the spur of the moment with only a shoddy bean bag, a hula hoop, and a spare neckerchief for props.

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And finally, our friend in Scouting Dick Nielson added many more funny ones to the list:

– Your license plate says AKELA, CUBS, BSA4EVR, or WEBELOS.

– You collect Wolf, Bear, Lion, and Webelos books.

– Your book case is filled with Pow Wow books and Program Helps.

– You need more space on your computer for clip art.

– You are at home alone with your kids and you start worry about two deep leadership.

– You refer to snack time at home as ‘cracker barrel’.

– You don’t have a problem with wearing the green scout socks anytime.

– You secretly wish the national colors were blue and gold.

– You count cubs to go to bed at night.

– You sit and wait for your wife to say ‘thank you’ before you will give her a kitchen knife.

– Your crayon/paint sets are missing all the blue and yellows.

– You wonder if you can get an order of just blue and yellow crayons/paint.

– You have a drawer of beads, belt loops, arrow points and advancements, ‘just in case’ someone forgot to tell you about one (and another for old egg cartons, another for soup cans, and another for rubber bands, string and rope).

– You think you could make a fortune renting a Pine Wood Derby track.

– You realize that the space derby and the rain gutter regatta are a weak replacement for the Pine Wood Derby that everyone would rather do anyway.

– You have a box of junk that the last leader gave you that you cannot throw away in case the feather, book, boondoggle, leather string, fishing line, 8 year old tape, and faded ribbons actually come in handy.

– You can name all the Cub Scout-related knots.

– You dream of being a commissioner or serving on a Roundtable staff.

– The highlight of your summer is cub camp/day camp.

– You cry when your boys cross over.

– You cry when new boys come in.

– You cry when they get awards.

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I hope this brought a smile to your face 🙂

(Thank you Liberty and Dick for the contributions!)

In Scouting,

-Scouter Jeff <><