The results of the committee meeting and my son ~FieryMomOf2~

I just realized I never posted a followup! The committee meeting went ok, I suppose. One of the moms/adult leaders REALLY ticked me off by asking "Has Ryan ever been hospitalized?" (She knew he had already). Then "Are we mental health officials? Then why should we shoulder the burden of responsibility for Ryan's actions and behavior?" I felt attacked and emailed her privately and let her know so. She took it upon herself to email me back and include ALL of the adult leaders in on the email. The best I can say is that she apologized for making it sound like an attack, and that wasn't her intention. Then why cc it to the rest of the troop?

What it all boiled down to was that either myself or my brother MUST accompany Ryan to all Scout functions for a long time until they feel he is ready to give it a go alone. I have no issue with that at all, except that I can't "do" winter campouts. They're too hard on me physically and I run the risk of pneumonia every time I'm out in cold weather for an extended period of time. I suppose I'll have to find a workaround for it, or hope that someone else familiar with Ryan can go.

He did apologize to the troop Monday, and the Scoutmaster was actually very kind to Ryan about it. Ryan was VERY nervous about speaking in front of the other boys, but he did well, and the Scoutmaster thanked Ryan for his apology, and in an offhanded way explained to the other boys that Ryan does have issues that they will all have to learn to deal with, and he said directly to Ryan that he hopes this is a learning experience for him, and promised to do all he could to help him.

Only one of the adult leaders took my suggestion to google Asperger's Syndrome and research it. He had a lot of questions for me at the meeting, which I gladly answered. I suggested again that everyone research it so they'll know exactly what they're dealing with.

Overall, I feel a bit better about his participation in Scouts. I think it may take a couple of years before he's emotionally ready to solo it, but that's ok too. He's got 6 years to make Eagle, and if it takes those 6 years to get there, then it just does. He's a Tenderfoot, next is Second Class, then First Class, then Life and Star rank, then Eagle. So a rank a year sounds about a "do-able" course for him. The merit badges are going to be the only problem I see, as those take a lot of time and effort to do. Only time will tell.

Nobody said life would be easy, they just said it would be worth it...

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