Why Parents Who Sell Girl Scout Cookies Are Shortchanging Their Kids
If your friends have kids of a certain age, your social media pages are likely filling up with links featuring Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, and other classic Girl Scout Cookie varieties. Now that people can order online, there’s no limit to the annual treats’ reach.
But some people are pushing back against parents’ posting sale links for their kids — isn’t the point of the cookie sales that kids learn by doing it themselves? The Girl Scouts website reads, “Every time you buy a box, you help girls learn five essential skills — goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics — all while helping them better themselves and their communities.”
So if parents are pushing the cookies, where does that leave kids? “Parents who do this aren’t doing their children any favors, aside from raising profit levels,” Jacqueline Whitmore, founder of the Protocol School of Palm Beach, tells Yahoo Parenting. “The whole goal is to teach children a lesson in how to be approachable and friendly and gracious. You don’t want to take away that opportunity by selling the cookies yourself.”
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In a piece in the Democrat & Chronicle, columnist David Andreatta writes, “Don’t bother putting me on your email list gently reminding me that your daughter is selling cookies. Don’t expect me to acknowledge your Facebook post about how many boxes your daughter wants to sell. Don’t bank on me filling out the order form you left in the lunchroom at work.” He goes on to say that the skills the Girl Scouts are trying to instill are valuable, as is learning to deal with the rejection that happens when kids attempt sales in person.
On Momtastic, in a story called “Why I’m Refusing to Buy Girl Scout Cookies This Year,” an anonymous writer posted, “When I was a Girl Scout, I went door-to-door and made the uncomfortable asks myself. My friends and I set up tables outside of grocery stores. We called our aunts and uncles in different states. … I like to think that all my years of getting turned down from my mean old neighbor prepared me for some of the disappointments I’ve faced in the real world.”
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People on Facebook are echoing these writers’ sentiments as well. “As a former Girl Scout and Brownie trooper leader, I understand why parents want to help their children sell cookies,” writes Victoria Freile of Rochester, N.Y. “But there’s a key word in this sentence … help. Children learn life skills from selling the cookies.”
Of course, offering cookies online gives people the chance to reach many more customers than going door-to-door in a neighborhood. So to keep with the child-led tradition of the sales, Whitmore suggests that the kids conceive the post or film a video asking people to buy from them. She also says that after the sale is over, kids could deliver thank-you notes with the cookies.
And if your kids do collect orders online, Whitmore recommends that they make an in-person effort as well. “The old-fashioned way works more effectively than online because of the skills that it teaches the kids,” she says.
Meanwhile, if you’re someone who feels bombarded by requests to buy Peanut Butter Patties and Shortbread cookies, Whitmore suggests telling the others the truth — that you’ve already stocked your pantry. Out on the street, use this rule: Buy the cookies from a kid. It may be tough to find an actual child selling them, but the hunt is part of the fun.
Top photo: Breakmake/Flickr
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