Co-Leader HELP
Some background: Our trip is brand new this year.
When council came for the parent meeting last year, two other women volunteered to be troop leaders; however, by our first summer meeting with council, they needed new troop leaders because both of the original volunteers dropped out. I originally signed up to be a troop level leader, but when the other two women dropped out, I became THE leader. Two other women volunteered to co-lead with me.
Fast forward to the ending of our first season. I am so burnt out. My other two leaders are truly wonderful people, but they are… crap leaders. They do absolutely nothing to help me plan meetings and when I ask for help or voice my general misery, they respond, “but you’re so good at it!” I will say that they did do the cookie program this year because I simply drew the line and said if I had to do it, our troop simply wouldn’t participate because I don’t have TIME.
My husband’s job as a government contractor takes him out of town for weeks at a time, and I have NO family around. I have a demanding job, and my youngest child is not old enough to join the troop, but she has to come for the meetings and it always, always turns into a scream fest. Either she is screaming at the other girls because they’re taking up all of my attention, or she is screaming at me because she wants or needs something. My oldest two are in the troop, and I can tell that it is embarrassing for them, but they love the troop. By the end of the meetings, I am irritable and angry, and now it is becoming a problem even before the meetings because I know that it is ALL on me.
I have tried, so many times, to tell the other troop leaders I need help. I’m looking through my texts right now, and within the last 5 months, I’ve asked for help in planning meetings 8 times. Not just help with obtaining supplies, but in PLANNING the meetings. Every time I ask, I’m met with an “okay, I’ll help out more,” and when I delegate something to them, it does not get done and nobody says anything. I even went so far as to ask them to plan ONE meeting while I was out of town, and they cancelled it because they knew they couldn’t do it without me.
I am toying with the idea of quitting and keeping my daughters in the troop, but I don’t want the girls to suffer or in the worst case scenario, I don’t want the troop to dissolve.
Has anyone been in a position like this? If so, what did you do? I’m drowning.