Family Benefit

I became a Brownie Leader at 17. I helped run a Guide pack for a while too. I had a year out just before I had my daughter at 30 and then rejoined when she was 3 months old as a Brownie leader in my local area.

She joined Rainbows at 5 but only joined me at Brownies when she was 7. So I did 21 years of volunteering for other people's kids.

I don't begrudge it at all, I love it (mostly).

Once she was a Brownie, I believed if I was going on Pack Holiday then she should get a place regardless of how many others wanted to go. If there was a trip I was going on then she would be going too. Often I would be paying for both of us to go (sometimes Leaders are funded).

She is now a Guide, I still find myself tagging her onto Brownie trips. I see her as an extra pair of helping hands and it saves me having to worry about where she would spend the day without me. She wants to be a Pack Leader when she is old enough and would willingly give up Guides to be a helper at Brownies. (I am not encouraging this, I want her to stay at Guides).

There are 3 leaders in our pack with Guide age girls. Someone discussing a particular trip said to me "You have to be careful, by taking leader's girls along it could be seen as a glorified family trip with a few brownies tagged on".

Is she right is it nepotism or am I allowing my daughter to have opportunities to develop herself?

One half of me firmly believes that if I'm going to continue to volunteer then why should my daughter not benefit. Leaders children so often have to compensate. Many times it's her hama, pencils, books, drawing paper, pjs and all else that is raided and taken as extras to camp. She has regularly 'donated' her stuff and time. She cuts out for prep for evenings, she's labelled packs, she was my guinea pig for ideas meaning she missed the 'surprise'.

But one half of me knows that people may point the finger and say she is only allowed to go because her mum is a leader. Does that matter?

Over all I think not but sometimes it bothers me.