Girl Scout Cookie Sales

I know, some of you are tired of hearing about Girl Scout Cookies.

Me too.

The sale ends on Monday and Becca might not reach her goal, though she will be within a few (like maybe 20) boxes of it. Sad, huh?

Her goal was ambitious. She wanted to sell 750 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. At $4 a box, I couldn't help her out THAT much. She has gone door to door, sold at 4 different churches, came up with a marketing strategy for my Facebook (the Girl Scout Cookie Fact of the Day), had a "lemonade stand" in our front yard several days, sold at booths with the troop, made fliers and advertised in her Daddy's and Grandma's offices and asked everyone she knows if they would like to buy. There are few things that she hasn't tried in order to sell.

Right now we are at 658 boxes, and that doesn't include her hours for selling at the booths. We're looking at about 75 boxes for that. That's 733...a really frustrating total.

So here's my delimma. I'm not the type of mom to just buy the other 17 boxes. It's her work that should get her to the goal. I've done a LOT for her, but still, the majority of the work that has been done came from her. She is 7 years old and has a LOT to be proud of. The thing is, there is only one other girl in the troop who will hit and has hit the 750 goal. That girl has special needs and really isn't great with people. Becca loves her. She loves hanging out with her. Going to Disneyland with her friend was really her goal. The other girl will go without Becca, but she really wanted her to be there. She's not the kind of girl who will be outgoing and find a new friend. Becca wanted to go be her friend.

One thing Becca will not do: she will not go around exploiting her friend's needs so that she will get that sympathy box of cookies. It's something we don't do around here. I don't go advertising that my son has autism so that people will do things for us, and I won't do it for any other kid with different needs either.

The other thing is that while Becca did the majority of the work, she asked quite a few people who the twins will be asking next year as well. This is probably the last year that she will get her total up that high unless she does something more than what she did this year (and believe me, this was drastic enough for me, if she does more next year, she will be more on her own).

So here I am. I have one of those parenting dilemmas. Part of me wants to go walk the neighborhoods again begging, but Becca has to have that idea. I asked people on Facebook again because Becca asked me to, but she has to have the ideas. I'm leaving the ball in her court. I'm frustrated, but not going to Disneyland isn't the end of the world. Becca has good reasons, but the reality is that she has to earn what she wants. She deserves something special, but it doesn't have to be Disneyland.