Last night Jaben's Cub Scout troop had a cake auction to raise money. I thought it was a great idea! The boys were supposed to make as much of the cake as they could themselves - from mixing and baking to frosting. They were to come up with the concept and design themselves and DO IT. They had prizes in different categories and I know Jaben was really excited about that idea.
Being the kind of mom that I am, we followed the rules. All I did was watch to make sure it didn't burn or overbake, and take it from the oven. That's it. He did a fooball theme, and I thought it looked pretty good for a cake made by a 10-yr old. I don't get home from work early enough to take him, so my mom dropped him and his cake off, and Kyan and I got there about halfway thru the auction.
I was very, very disappointed by what I saw. Easily half of these cakes were NOT made by children. There was a dirt cake made in a flowerpot, one made to look like a banana split, and another that looked like a real hamburger and fries! *I* couldn't make a cake that looked that good, I don't believe for a second that a boy 11 and under made those cakes. Not only is that *not fair* to the kids who actually made their own cakes and followed the rules, but what did they learn from this? The ones whose parents made their cakes learned that it's okay to be dishonest as long as you win. And the ones who did it on their own learned that following the rules doesn't get you anywhere. Of course the parent-made cakes won in all categories.
Since this was Cub Scouts (all about honesty and building the leaders of tomorrow, y'know) I kind of expected someone to say something. I would have expected the cakes obviously made by children to win - on principle if nothing else. But -- since the super-cakes brought in huge amounts (I actually saw a cake sell for $75 last night!) I guess they thought it was worth it in the end.
I'm pretty disgusted tho. My kid was one who followed the rules, did a damn good job on his cake, and got screwed over by dishonest, overly-involved parents. Nice lesson.
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We're leaving at 6am tomorrow to drive to Nashville to watch Jill James (hopefully) win the Colgate Country Showdown. Will be absent for a few days (not that this is unusual for me), please send safe trip vibes and prayers that all will go well!
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2 comments:
Our Kindermusik one day told us parents to stop making the kids' projects - it was turning into a huge thing for the parents to out-do the other parents - thank goodness she talked us down from that.
LOL... it's good tho that she made you stop. It's so fun, to me, to see what the kids all come up with! Then again… sometimes it’s fun to see what all the parents come up with!
BTW... thanx for the link! I LOVE your blog!!
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