more stuff that people without kids can't relate to

my 8 year old kid joined the cub scouts today. i didn't want him to because i have some kind of stick up my ass about stuff like that. it's stupid really when i think about it. in my crowd, cub scouts were geeks, but my kids aren't growing up in the same rural, farming, hillbilly socioeconomic strata that i did. it's about camping and having fun and, let's face it, my strange child could use a little more socialization.

that's one pitfall of parenting i want to avoid - subjecting my kids to my own fussy little dogmas, in particular, my severe mistrust of organized groups or anything having even the smallest bit of religious affiliation. i missed out on a lot of stuff because i was "too cool" for it. i don't have to worry anymore. all illusions of being too cool or even cool at all are gone. so if my kids want to join cub scouts, that's fine with me. if they want to try out for the football team, i say go for it. if they want to go to church, i'll let 'em. i hope i've learned that lesson from my own childhood - shoving a bunch of rigid dogma at a kid is a good way to make him or her reactionary rather than contemplative.