Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Caitlin is now a Daisy.

Don't know what that is? Well, it turns out that it's the larval stage of a Brownie.

No, I have NO idea why they go from flowers to food. Or flowers to mythological creatures, but there it is.

We went to the first meeting today. They have little tunics they get to wear and badges they try to collect and friends they attempt to make and some volunteer work, some snacks and some crafting. Today they made friendship bracelets. When the leader announced that they would be giving the bracelets to the person on their right, you should have seen the jostling for position! I watched Caitlin edge out another girl that wanted to sit next to M. Caitlin is nothing if not persistent, never said a word, but muscled her way in and made sure that she sat next to M the whole time. There were some strange games played - the Daisy version of Simon says. The girls had to touch body parts together at the behest of the leader or leader's 2nd in command.

Um...I'd be willing to bet money that cub scouts (or whatever their larval stage is known as) don't do any sort of game involving touching their nose to their friend's or making friendship bracelets. I kinda wonder what they do do....I think Caitlin is about to experience lots of girl induction rites or something.

There was this one girl that has already proved to be the biggest loud-mouth in the group.

Errr...displayed leadership qualities.

Yup, the law school theory of "If you're not sure who the obnoxious one in class is, it's you." held true today. She was louder than anyone else, bossier than anyone else and tried to hog the limelight like I ain't never seen it done by a 5 year old before.

Is this just the snark by the mother of the cutest girl in the room? Naaaah. I didn't expect Caitlin to run the group, but I saw what could either be a really outgoing, powerful personality or the leader of the popular girls. Only time will tell! We're trying to raise Caitlin to be strong and independent. Watching her fall in line with all the other girls when asked (repeatedly) lame questions by the mini-leader, bothered me. At one point she sat there with her hand raised and yet no question had been asked. She was prepared to agree with whatever question was going to be asked next. (If your favorite color is violet, raise your hand! If you like white, raise your hand!)

Whaaaat?

So we'll see how the year of being a Daisy goes and see if we want to re-up as a Brownie next year. The girlie indoctrination might be too much for me, but we'll see.

I was never a Girl Scout, of course. Organized, purchased play time? You've gotta be kidding me! We ran wild during the summers, rode our bikes all over the place: Green Grass Hill, Slippery Hill, down by the train tracks (illegally, of course - almost got caught), played bizarre rock war games (yes, we threw actual rocks at our friends over a 6' tall fence), played 2 hand touch football in the street until we had to yell "Car!" and scramble to get out of the way, played tennis (in the street), badminton (in the yard, using the clothesline as the "net"), cops and robbers, Monopoly (we cheated like mad) and on and on. There wasn't any time for organized groups.

Well, maybe there was, but there wasn't any money! However, I think it all worked out well in the end. I never learned to not climb trees or run screaming across highways or that playing with boys was yucky, so I guess that was all for the best.

I haven't decided yet if I want Caitlin to think boys are yucky yet. Maybe around 13....