one step at a time.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Brownies.... parental responsibility. Or lack of it.

For the last two weeks an 11 year old kid has been left at the church with one of my Brownies. No parent brought the girls in either week - they appeared. I suspect the 11 year old has been sent to walk the 8yr old to Brownies.

To provide a bit of background: This Brownie has previously turned up with 'cousins who are visiting' and I let them stay as they were Brownie age and I had enough cover. The mother brought them in and filled out emergency contact forms.

Last week (I was off sick) the 11 year old was told the Guides are full and she's too old for Brownies so she couldn't come back. My assistant guider told me that she was a pain - made comments all night despite being told just to sit at the side.

This week she turned up again. I checked with the Guide guiders who told me they couldn't take her so she would have to go home, and that they had told her this the previous week.

She made up some rubbish stories about bullying which aren't true (definitely - when I challenged them she backed down immediately). She told me that her mother was busy and not home, when I asked her to get her mother to come and speak to me.

She didn't go home. She hung around the church I think for the whole 1hr 15mins.

The plan next week is to phone her parents and have someone pick her up should she turn up AGAIN. Also I'm introducing a new rule - no guests at Brownies unless I've had a phone call to ask if it's ok BEFORE the evening.

Presumably while she's hanging around there she's someone's responsibility - but whose?

7 comments:

Jen said...

Well she isn't your responsibility! I wouldn't have let her stay the first time to be honest, but that's not helpful so let's concentrate on what is!

You need to get a contact number for her if you don't have one already. Maybe from the parents of the Brownie who brought her? Then steel yourself and call the number and explain that she is too old for Brownies, there are no spaces at Guides and she cannot stay.

Travis Cody said...

Good luck with this little problem.

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

Parents who use Brownies or Little League as babysitters are, to me, sludge at the bottom of a well

CountryDew said...

Sounds like this could be a problem. Hope you get it worked out to everyone's satisfaction. Also hope you continue to feel better (May 20 post).

TopChamp said...

Guider - that's about what I thought too.

Trav - me too.

Bond - I wholeheartedly agree with you there!

Countrydew - I am still a bit grotty healthwise but it's defeinitely a lot better than last week! Thanks for the thought x Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing.

Anonymous said...

poor you not a good position to be in! maybe worth mentioning to your dc to cover yourself. also if it is a persistant problem you can ask her to help

TopChamp said...

Our DC is the guide guider who told me to send her away.