Conquering all: Mission Impossible

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I like a challenge, I like to achieve something that few else have managed, throw me something silly to do and typically I will give it a go.

But this, this almost killed me.  At times it felt it was truely, Mission Impossible.

It has taken three long years, that is thirty six months of my life dedicated to one sole aim and still I am only 50% successful.  I laugh at myself when I think how naive I was three years ago, thinking a bit of research, a few phone calls and I would be almost there; I had no idea of the path that lay before me.

I won’t lie, I have almost given up numerous times, one night almost a year ago, I turned to he who helped create them and clutched at his shirt lapels with a stricken face and cried,

‘I just can’t do this anymore!’

He looked down upon my creased, stress tormented face and stroked back my hair saying ‘you ran a marathon Jane; for God’s sake you can do THIS.’

So I picked myself up, brushed away the tears of pity and reformulated my plan.  I spent more hours scrolling through the internet; I sent more emails, made more phone calls.  Each one a dead end;

‘I am sorry, I don’t handle that area,’ said one kind soul;

‘Nope, no room here.’ Barked another.

Then finally, after a full home relocation and an almost full bottle of gin I hit jackpot.

‘Yes, that’s’ me’ said a voice in my ear, ‘and yes of course you can.’

I almost dropped the phone; finishing the call quickly and writing down instructions for the next phrase I launched like a jet plane into the kids room and grabbed Twin Girl and flung her round my shoulders with excitement pouring from me.

‘I did it,’ I scream triumphant, ‘I did it.’

The kids looked at me with questions in their eyes.  Then Twin Girl started to glow with pleasure as I shared my news, my achievement, and the first 50% success of my objective.  On the sidelines my son glowered jealously but I was almost too overwhelmed to notice.

Last night – my daughter became a fully fledged Brownie!

Now I just have to get the boy into cubs.

Bring it on!

16 thoughts on “Conquering all: Mission Impossible”

  1. you struggle so hard to get them “in” , then spend ages painstakingly sewing on badges (upside down even!), all for them to say a year down the line “i hate it, I want to go to Rock School instead”

    #truestoryinmyhouse

  2. Brilliant – but I never realised how hard it is to get into Brownies – is it really that hard? Well done you! (I was an Elf BTW – and a sixer and seconder – do they still use those terms?)

  3. It would seem some things are easier in Cornwall! All of mine have done or are doing the scouting bit, it is really good for them, especially the camps. Hope yours will love it too and fingers crossed you get Twin Boy in soon!

  4. It really is a postcode lottery. In some areas you can just make a phonecall, it seems.
    Here, you need to put their name down at birth for rainbows, then they seemlessly move onto Brownies. But if you, like us, just want to go to Brownies then it can take ages until a place comes up. And guides is even worse. DD1 is just moving up to guides after Easter and she’s 11 1/2. The good news is that once an older sibling is in the system, the younger ones seem to get places more easily.
    I put DS’s name down for Beavers a couple of years ago, so I live in hope there may be a place for him next January.
    The trouble is they just don’t have enough adults to run these packs, a local one has just closed down through lack of help 🙁

  5. You are funny! Kept me guessing all the way through. When we moved I got my daughter straight into the local Brownies to my surprise. Turned out there was only one other member. She’s now a cub.

  6. I’m so surprised by this. My OH is a Scout leader and our group is under subscribed at all levels. It appears that Scouting just isn’t cool in our area at the moment. Hope you manage to get your son into Cubs, it can be a brilliant community to be part of.

  7. The lengths the brownies will go to to keep you out. It’s Molly I feel for. Church parade anyone?

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