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Monday, June 22, 2009

Laundry Breeds

So did all of the men in your life have a fantastic Father's Day? I know some of you had Father's day last month, right? Can't remember where that was, though :) My memory is a bit swiss cheese-ie! Oh well. (Just to warn you, I'm about to go on a bit of a tirade - hehehe)

Church was busy, but good. We had the Young Men and some of their leaders talk in church yesterday. About how fabulous their float trip was. You know, the one that maimed my child. (OK, so my hubby just said that he wasn't really maimed, but you get the idea) Needless to say, I was listening intently to the stories, and walked away resolved to never let my child go on another overnight campout in this ward again, without his father.

At one point, one of the leaders said that on their 26 mile canoe trip, they came to a fork in the river, and didn't know which way to go. The prayed, and took the one that they thought was best. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What kind of planning is that??? I'm all for saying a prayer when you're in a tight spot, and I know that Heavenly Father will help you, but that does NOT count as a map. You've gotta do some planning on your own ahead of time. If you're gonna be in charge of youth, you need to know what you're doing.

I looked over to Captain America at that point, and he didn't look so happy either. The poor man has NO poker face, whatsoever. All emotions play across his face as he's feeling them. hehehe. I could tell he wasn't happy either.

The men were all joking about getting sunburned, too, which annoyed me. Well, there's another word for it, but we'll go with "annoyed". How can you teach youth responsibility when you, as a leader, don't even protect yourself. One of the leaders legs was so burned it was purple. Not smart. What kind of example are you setting? He had to wear flip flops to church because his feet were so burned, he coudn't put on socks. And these are the people I intrusted my child with. My precious, first born. Um, yeah. Not gonna happen again.

I've had a few people talk about teaching the boys responsibility, but you know what. They're kids. They may be 11-17, but by law, that's still a child. First off, don't take children on a 26 mile in one day float trip. Break it up. That's TOO far for one day in the desert. 9 hours on a boat. Too long.

Second, make sure they're properly dressed before getting on the boat. They need to have long sleeves, and long pants. No sunburns if you're dressed that way. And a wide brimmed hat. They need one of those too. Don't let them on the boat without it.

Third, stop every hour to reapply sunscreen. And don't just tell them. Make them line up and watch them do it. Captain America said that in the army, they do that. And the guys there are GROWN men. If you don't trust grown men to do it properly without supervision, how can you expect youth to?

The longer the day went on, the more upset about it I got. After I blog about this, I'm gonna have to let it go, and forget about it. I don't want to expend any more negative energy thinking about it. It just gets me upset. My poor little boy. You know, if I was babysitting a child Jacob's age, and brought them back to his parent looking like he looked when the Scout leaders returned him, they'd probably call the cops on me. Did I tell you than when we took him to the ER, they said that it looked like a Chemical Burn. That's bad.

They're just lucky that nothing worse happened. I know that last year in Ohio, there was an overweight kid that went on a hike with the troop, and he died. The leaders didn't recognize the signs of heat exhaustion. He was out of shape, brand new in the Boys Scouts, probably drank the wrong fluids (sugar drinks), and just died. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.

The BSA (Boy Scouts of America) have rules to follow to keep you safe. Obviously, our leaders weren't following the rules. And that's why people got hurt. And yes, 2nd degree sunburns count as "hurt". It's like anything else in life. The rules are there to keep you safe. If you follow them, you'll be ok. If you don't, you're risking a lot. And I don't want my son to be what's risked.

OK, moving on....I feel better now that I got that off my chest :) We came home from church, made lunch, the kids made cards for their dad, we hung out for a while, watched a movie, took a nap, cleaned up a little, but mostly just relaxed. A nice lazy Sunday afternoon. Can't beat that :)

Here's a few pictures from Father's Day:

Captain America and the kids and his card (and no, Jake's not mad, he just can't move his face without it hurting)

Captain America and I - I was sad that it was a bit blury.

Captain America and his card - yummy chocolates!

This WordArt request is from Linda. Actually, she was just sending the idea on. She saw the saying somewhere, and thought it was funny. OMGosh! It's hysterical. I SO agree. My laundry breeds on its own like RABBITS! You'd think 27 people live in this house, not 7 - hehehe. Laundry has always, and will probably always, be my nemisis. Sigh.

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)


Embarassing as it is, this is my laundry pile. I HATE folding laundry. I used to keep the clean pile in my room, but when Captain America got back from Georgia, he put an end to that. He decided that on top of the kithen table was better. That way, I'd remember it. Well, it just became a pain in the butt, because I was constantly moving it to and from the floor at each meal. So now, the permanant home for the unfolded clean laundry is near the hutch, in the corner. Theoretically, Jacob will deposit one basket there, and I'll find it, fold it, and give it to who it belongs to. Unfortunately, my laundy breeds. And fast. Just check out that pile - hehehe.

24 comments:

Samantha said...

I totally agree with you Bethany..on every aspect!

My hubby and boys spend a lot of time outside in the summer and before they left to go dirt biking yesterday, I showed them the pics of your son and gave them a little lecture. And guess what? Hubby took care of the boys...no burns...yay! But he neglected himself...looks like a lobster! grrr!

Thanks for the WA...you're so generous!

Lauri said...

oh I hate folding laundry too! Mine is all on my bed!! and I am so sorry about your son's experience and sunburn; hopefully, he is not soured off the experience though, and next time there will either be adults or very responsible people on the trip! Hope he is feeling better!

Kim said...

oh goodness, that word art is hilarious! thanks so much! i hope your son is feeling better!

rhonda.m said...

Oh Bethany, I SO agree with you!! I was actually thinking that when you first posted about the burn, but of course didn't want to say it! I hope he's feeling better soon.
Thanks for the word art. It is so appropriate for my home.

CathyK Designs said...

Love the wordart - my laundry breeds, too, LOL! So sorry to hear about your son's burn. It's hard enough to trust you kids to someone else, but then to find out that those people are irresponsible. And, I agree, that you have to force kids to use sunscreen - they won't do it on their own because it isn't "cool" in their eyes. Hope you son feels better soon!

xashee's corner said...

oh sweetie i am so very sorry about poor Jake!!! you really might have a suit here, though, if you wanted to persue it! i know, who wants to sue the BSA but SOMEONE should be held responsible for this!! especially if they have RULES that weren't followed!!!HUGS to Jake!!
Thank you so much for sharing this FUN wa!!! :) Have a SUPER day!!

Heidi said...

So cute! Love it!

Jules said...

Fantastic WA- it must be true for all us mum's!

Leanne said...

Wow. I'm sorry to hear about your son's burn. And thank you SO much for opening my eyes to all of this. I guess I have always just expected that the scout leaders (any leaders for that matter) would be responsible and take good care of my son. Wrong. I'll be much much more aware of what goes on from now on. My son is 11 and will soon move from Webelos to scouts. I'll be aware of who his leaders are and how they handle things. I hope your son feels better soon. Poor guy.
Thanks for the word art and the eye opening post!

Mom2mykids said...

So sorry about Jacob's experience! My son Spencer just went on a scout trip from Thursday to Saturday. Luckily, there are great leaders in our ward and nobody got sunburned or anything! (Well, Spencer didn't eat a lot -- can you say PICKY!? but other than that things were fine.) I'm really grateful for the leaders in our ward!

Mom2mykids said...

Forgot -- Oh, and you should see MY laundry pile! It's all on the side of my bed. Sigh. I need to buy some baskets next time I'm at Wally World. I've been trying to get my kids to fold their own (ha ha ha) but that's an ongoing lesson, I'm finding. My DH doesn't even fold his own. Sigh. And he's gonna be 52 next month!

LovelyMissKait said...

I hated seeing the picture of your son all sunburnt! Poor little guy.
You are upset and rightly so. I'd have a word with the elders about it, if I were you.

Oh yes, I have the same problem, though I only have 2 little ones and you have a lot more than that. Laundry reproduces like rabbits, or so it seems.

How do you like ironing? I don't mind the laundering, or folding, or putting away as much as I do the ironing.
This was my pile last week: http://lovelymisskait.blogspot.com/search?q=laundry

I hope your son's sunburn heals quickly.

Kait

Corynn said...

Oh, I am so glad someone else feels like I do about some scout leaders. I don't even have a boy in scouts and it freaks me out! A couple weeks ago in testimony meeting, we had boys getting up talking about their experience hiking the two days before... OUT OF WATER for half a day with nothing but a GPS waypoint and NO MAP! One leader was taken to the hospital when the boys returned to camp. I looked at my hubby and my 7 month old and said NO WAY!

Then the bishop got up and was like, "To the moms out there who might be feeling a little worried I ... um, well, it's just scouts. You just have to understand that."

I am so sorry it happened to you and that you had to endure a whole day of grown men joking about something dangerous that happened to your Jacob. (My baby is Jake too!) :)

Have a better day. (Love the WA too..)

Dinphy said...

Oh that poor boy! I agree with you. They're kids, it's up to the (so called) 'leaders' to make sure they're SAFE! An accident can happen, but this is just being irresponsible. And then the nerve to actually joke about it... >:(
You are SO entitled to feel 'annoyed'. Love how you wrote that. VERY polite, but anyone will understand fully! ;)


Thank you for the wordart!
LOVE it, that quote is hilarious! Although I don't think I'd ever get to be so brave as to put a photo with it though! :)

Take care, and all the best to your boy.

Mari said...

Oh, I would be furious about that camping trip, too. I would be having a little chat with the leaders about it.

DnSmum said...

Bethany,

Disappointing to hear that these leaders failed to lead...

In the meantime, I can relate to the fierce West Texas/New Mexico sun. Years ago I went skiing at Sierra Blanca and my face was so sunburned my eyes were swollen shut for nearly 3 days. (I applied sunscreen but forgot to REAPPLY -- especially in the cold).

Anyway... just thought I'd offer some ideas for relief (especially since the hospital didn't offer me any at the time!).

To this day we keep aloe vera gel in the fridge, just in case. The gel itself is nice, but cold was so refreshing!

For my eyes we used cold "used" teabags to help with pain and swelling. I have also been told since then that you can brew black tea and put it in the fridge until cool. Put it in a spray bottle and spray any sunburned areas for relief from the "heat". Apparently it is the tanin in the tea that helps. Of course, be careful where you spray it since tea stains!

Thin slices of cold cucumber on my face was also relieving. Much more so than the lotions I found that were supposed to help...those just seemed to trap the heat in.

I also remember someone suggesting a wash of apple cider vinegar but I refused to try that one at the time...too vain and afraid I'd smell like a pickle after the cucumbers! I have heard that it helps though!

Sorry for the long comment but I remember this so vividly and it was nearly 20 years ago! I hope your son feels relief quickly. Hope the shoeless scout leader learned something too!

Trac said...

Wow - your laundry room looks like mine.

My hubby and I were both Scout leaders and we would have NEVER allowed that to happen to our kids, and yes, we are training them to be adults. We had a campout at Galveston Beach and I made the boys swim with a shirt on because the sun was so intense. Yes, your leaders are just parents but they are trained and they do have responsibilities to your kids.

My suggestion, contact the council (your council name is on your kid's patches and you can get their headquarters number from the internet) and let them know. You can also go online to get an email address for the District Chairman and send him the pictures. I guarantee something will be done.

templework said...

As a mother of 5 sons - I say...

Thank you for saying what sooo needed to be said!!!

We need BSA Leaders who actually take their calling seriously!

((HUGS))

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

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Rose said...

I totally agree with your rant! There is no excuse for not applying sunscreen on children! My sister has 4 kids, and suggests doing one person's laundry each day. In each childs room there is a basket, and when she washes it and dries it, it comes out of the dryer and goes back into their rooms. Then laundry is always up to date. I do laundry once a week, and cram it all into one load lol

SandyPie said...

I agree with all of you that the 'leaders' should have know better, and done something about it. But these guys are acting like it was college frat prank, and teasing him the next day. It's supposed to distract you from the fact they KNOW they were wrong! Oh and to Samantha, I've done that though, my girlfriend and I took our 2 yo to a water park and got them all lubed up and they were so excited to go off we went neither of us though of ourselves we were burnt to a crisp! So badly I freckled afterward.

Anyway LOVE the wordart. My clean laundry is kept on the guest bed, and I think the cats sleeping on it heat up just right like birds on a nest that it doubles but I also think they it is eating socks for nutrition! Ha-ha, your WA made me laugh. Thank you!

Tigger said...

Oh dear! Get plenty of that aloe vera stuff with the lidocaine. It works for sunburns and bug bites. And kitchen burns. I should know on that one! LOL And I don't even want to think about my laundry pile! But at least now I have a reason to scrap it! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Oh, this is so true!!! And also why I make our children assist with laundry, lol! Thanks for the appropriate word art!

marisa said...

Oh I love the quote! You are lucky you have a bunch of boys and not 3 little girls who think it is necessary to change every hour, we finally put a lock on the bedroom door so they couldn't get clothes out all day long!