Confession:\u00a0 I was more than a little surprised the other day when my assistant asked me about the \u201cnature of my issue with Girl Scout cookies.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think I had one.\u00a0 So she reminded me that in the past week or so I had:<\/p>\n
Hmm.\u00a0 Yep \u2013 I did all of that.\u00a0 But my \u201cissue\u201d is not with Samoas, Trefoils or Thin Mints\u2026 or girls in scouting.<\/p>\n
If my primary job as a parent is to prepare my child for adult life then I need to resist the temptation to make a habit of doing FOR them the things they need to do for themselves.\u00a0 (I didn\u2019t build my son\u2019s Pinewood Derby car either \u2013 does that make me a Tiger Mom?)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I don\u2019t like buying Girl Scout cookies from adults.\u00a0 And, as I said in the fundraising post, I\u2019m not a fan of stopping to chat outside the grocery store while the frozen food items are still frozen.<\/p>\n
So, to be clear: I\u2019m a big fan of Girl Scouts and of effective fundraisers \u2013 especially the kind that help kids to learn and grow in the process.\u00a0 Have you read about Kirsten?<\/a> I did.\u00a0 And it was because of a remarkable achievement: last year she sold one thousand three hundred one (1,301) boxes of Girl Scout cookies.<\/p>\n To begin to put this in perspective, I\u2019ve learned that the sale of 300 boxes is considered exceptional.\u00a0 In addition, her parents work from home and didn\u2019t provide that \u201corder sheet in the break room shortcut\u201d (ugh \u2013 don\u2019t get me started again).<\/p>\n However the most impressive part of the story is that when Kirsten was diagnosed with autism at age four, it was so severe that she didn\u2019t speak.\u00a0 This is the girl who, at age 15, sold almost twice as many boxes of cookies as the next highest seller in her area \u2013 that vast majority through door-to-door face-to-face direct sales.<\/p>\n