{"id":23864,"date":"2024-04-21T08:08:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T12:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=23864"},"modified":"2024-04-21T08:08:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T12:08:35","slug":"year-of-first-lasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2024\/04\/year-of-first-lasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Year of First Lasts."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Once again, the year of first lasts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last field day with Justin.<\/p>\n

Last IEP meeting for Justin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last graduation for Justin, at which I will be a blubbering mess.<\/p>\n

But there are first lasts for Zach too, as he approaches aging out of Boy Scouts in February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last month it was his last Klondike. A Boy Scout event where troops build their own sleds, travel to seven different \u201ctowns\u201d, and answer questions and accomplish tasks.<\/p>\n

This year they did it for six consecutive hours in a bone-chilling downpour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I was there too. Every year a number of grown Boy Scout leaders tolerate me as we head into the woods to officiate.<\/p>\n

There is usually a fire, although not this year. The site is aptly named Turkey Swamp, as it truly was during the deluge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There is always great food, and better conversation.<\/p>\n

At one point in the day, perhaps my favorite, men always come around with a bag of candy. And I mean good candy, like Reeses Peanut Butter Cup good candy.<\/p>\n

My friends, particularly those from high school who know me as a girly-girly, find it intensely amusing that annually I willingly spend a cold day in the woods with a bunch of men (and sometimes the occasional woman).<\/p>\n

I enjoy it immensely.<\/p>\n

But the highlight of my day was this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After we returned to the firehouse, and my son helped unpack the gear, he ran to our car and dove in from the tempest.<\/p>\n

I asked him how it went. Given that a handful of years ago he would have been begging me to take him home after half an hour, I wasn\u2019t sure what his response would be.<\/p>\n

Instead, I got a \u201cbest one ever, because it was the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s what scouting does.<\/p>\n

It provides challenges that develop problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It teaches resilience and self-advocating in a way my generation of parenting can never hope to accomplish for our sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

It encourages bonds of friendship to be forged in fire, after learning how to build said fire, that will sustain the test of adulthood, and all its distractions.<\/p>\n

It remains one of the best choices of activities I ever sought out for Zach.<\/p>\n

Scouting may not be everybody\u2019s cup of tea, or other scout-approved non-alcoholic beverage.<\/p>\n

But it helped my son become the incredible almost-man he is today in indelible, immeasurable, permanent ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you\u2019re considering it for your child (and girls are now welcome too!), just remember.<\/p>\n

Be prepared.<\/p>\n

In a few years, you will be astounded at what they can accomplish.<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Once again, the year of first lasts. Last field day with Justin. Last IEP meeting for Justin. Last graduation for Justin, at which I will be a blubbering mess. But there are first lasts for Zach too, as he approaches aging out of Boy Scouts in February. Last month it was his last Klondike. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[293,295,5197],"class_list":["post-23864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-brick","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-boy-scouts-bsa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6cU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}