We are. It's not that I want to admit it... but we are. We are an interesting people group by far.
Last night I assisted my daughter's girl scout troop leader by helping with the meeting since the other leader couldn't be present. These girls, I love them. I go on many trips with them, camped out with them for days, but last night I saw them in rare form.
There are some new girls in the group and they are all still getting to know each other's personalities. This is an art form I am finding. Learning to be tolerant of others. Even as an adult I am still working at learning this skill. I do have a ways to go I assure you, so I am not suggesting I have this mastered by any means.
One girl proved herself a major drama queen last night. The girls had just voted whether or not to use candles or sachet bags of potpourri for their ceremony in two weeks. They voted, fair and square. Candles had 4 votes and I think sachets had 5 or 6 votes. The one drama queen (or should I say one of the drama queens)was sitting next to me and she had voted for candles. We were already discussing other items for the ceremony and drama queen taps me on the shoulder. She whispers, "I need to talk to you outside." Are you ok? I asked her. "Yes, I just need to talk to you." We go out in the hall where we can talk. Here is what she told me:
I don't want to participate in there. I don't feel like it. (Are you ok? I ask) Yes I am fine it's not that, I have had a bad day. (Well if you just come in and participate with us maybe it will help you get your mind off your day, I suggest) No, I don't want to participate. I don't want to discuss the ceremony because..... it's about.... the candles.
Yep, it was about the candles; she was having a bad day - because she didn't get her way by having candles at the ceremony. And without exaggeration she drug out her explanation like that when she shared her reason with me in the hall. She went on to say it's not just at G.S. but everywhere she finds people disagree with her and oh... oh... the drama! I wanted to say, "you think you have had a bad day? Let me show you my set of shiny new wrenches, and we will talk about having a bad day"... but I didn't.
In a kind, gentle, sweetly spoken way, I finally suggested if she truly didn't want to participate she should find a seat at a table in the back of the room and lay her head down. She agreed but not five minutes later she was back over sitting in our circle. The moment had passed. For now. Until she didn't get her way about something else.
Find yourself, keeping it real.
3 comments:
Oh my goodness...I think that I would have had to give her a "your living in the real world, honey" speech that I used to get sometimes when I was younger. I by far have not mastered the art of staying objective when dealing with "drama queens" - you handled that far better than I would have...but it's funny to see that no matter our age -- we all have a little drama queen in us!
Great blog! Would like to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting.
Kids mimic what they see at home. The great thing about being a leader in scouts or sports or whatever else is the chance to model a different adult behavior for the kid than they might get from their parents. Sounds like you handled it great!
Thanks, Trish and Dadshouse, I hope handled it ok... it was baffling the whole scene, really; almost surreal. But I left feeling like I could pull a life-lesson from the experience, if for no other reason, to share with Kass on why we don't allow ourselves to get pulled into the 'drama scene.'
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