With another selling season in the books, here are 5 reasons to not share Girl Scout cookie rewards publicly.
Whether or not you have a Cookie Manager or you are both leading your troop and cookie sales, the end of the selling season is a sigh of relief for most leaders. There is a lot of stress and drama when it comes to cookie season, it can end once the last cookie carton is emptied.
Or you can choose to let it continue.
In a previous blog post, I shared reasons why girls do not sell 1.000 boxes of cookies and why leaders need to be like Elsa and “Let it go”.
Handing our Girl Scout cookie rewards in a public display can make girls feel badly and in the case of younger or more sensitive children, have them burst into tears.
And there are leaders who simply do not care about the girls’ feelings.
Here is a sample of what some leaders, in a Girl Scout Facebook group, had to say about how they hadn out Girl Scout cookie rewards.
- One wrote that she wasn’t afraid to hurt a girl’s feelings, no matter what her age is. She doesn’t want to participate in kids becoming “entitled brats”.
- Another said that she believes that a child seeing all the rewards her peers get will “light a fire” under her and her parents for next year’s sales.
- A third leader publicly handed out of prizes and had girls pulled from her troop.
- Another leader chimed in and said that there was nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.
- A leader proudly shared that her co-leader and she pulled out everything out of the bags the prizes were placed in as they were presented to each scout. She stated she was not going to sugar coat prizes earnings for her troop.
This honestly makes me so sad to think that leaders are this inconsiderate to the feelings and life situations of the girls who are in their care.
In response to this line of thinking, here are some reasons not to share Girl Scout rewards in front of the entire troop.
Reasons Not to Share Girl Scout Cookie Rewards Publicly
Reason 1
The girls are always totally dependent upon their parents for sales.
Until a girl has her own form of transportation, it will up to her parents to decide how much she can participate in sales. The girl may want to and her parent says, “No”. She cannot do walkabouts herself, she cannot set up her own booth without an adult, and she cannot be at her troop booth without a parent. Even if a leader volunteers to take her to the booth, the child’s parent can still refuse to let her participate.
How is that girl going to feel if you hand out the troop Girl Scout cookie rewards publically?
Reason 2
Cookie Sales Are Not a Competitive Sport
Life is full of competition. Kids trying out for traveling sports teams, competitive dance, and to get top grades for scholarship money and class rank. As adults, there is competition in the work force.
Girl Scouts is not any of those things.
Your troop is a team and your girls are on the same team. Girl Scouts is about sisterhood and working together; it is not a blood sport where everybody out for themselves.
Make a huge fuss about achieving TROOP GOALS. Celebrate the successes of your troop. What did the girls vote for when deciding on troop goals? Are you taking that trip, buying new camping equipment, or putting the money towards a service project? Those are reasons to celebrate.
Girl Scouts needs to be a safe space, no matter how many boxes of cookies are sold.
Reason 3
Selling is Dependent on the Level of Parent Participation
The difference between top sellers and average/low sellers can be dependent on where their parents work, how much local family they have, if they have time to do walkabouts, and how willing those who do not live locally want to pay the shipping for cookies. For many, Girl Scout cookie rewards are a reflection of how committed their parents are to selling them. A parent who is permitted to sell cookies at work, is the boss of a company, or has a large network of people, will have a child who will outsell the girl whose parents work from home, are a stay at home parent, work in a small office, or are not permitted to sell in the workplace.
And to be honest, if a parent is selling the cookies, what is the girl really learning? Did she really earn those prizes?
Reason 4
There is More to Being a Girl Scout Than Selling Cookies
Girl Scouts sell cookies to not only raise funds for their troop activities, but also for their Council. These funds help support campgrounds, events, and more.
There are leaders who pride themselves on being self-sufficient. Their cookie sales pay for everything. With the exception of troops who are low socio-economic areas, I have always been of the opinion that this is not the best use of funds (this blog post explains why). Free is not valued by most people. Make them pay for half? They don’t want to lose their money.
I have read about some leaders who stop everything and spend three months on cookie sales. That is lost time for doing community service, badge work, or having fun meetings just to hang out. Absolutely, cookie selling is an opportunity for girls to learn important skills that will last long after the booth sale is over. Is it worth losing three months of scouting experiences to sell cookies?
It just isn’t the only reason a child becomes a Girl Scout.
Reason 5
The Truth About Girl Scout Cookie Rewards
Go ahead and look on eBay, Mercari, or in Girl Scout Facebook groups.
What will you find?
There are pages of Girl Scout cookie rewards that girls earned and are no longer interested in. Many are brand new. This is similar to buying something and then leaving it hanging in your closet with the tags on. You wanted it and now you don’t.
The truth is that the desire for the cookie prize is fleeting. How you make the girls in your troop feel about receiving them may leave an indelible mark on how they think about you and their memories of being in your troop.
Three Easy Solutions for Handing out Girl Scout Cookie Rewards
There are three very simple ways to hand out the prizes each girl in your troop earned.
- Hand everything out in the same size bag, stapled shut. The girls can open them when they get home.
- Deliver the cookie rewards to each girl individually.
- Have the parents pick up the bag of prizes at your home. Leave on your front porch at the appointed time.
How do you hand out Girl Scout cookie rewards to your troop?
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I would love to do away with cookie prizes. I try to emphasize how cookie sales benefit the TROOP, but my daughter is super focused on the prizes. Ugh
You are welcome. I believe that if a girl wants to focus on the prize and SHE does the work to achieve her goals, that is terrific! It is the leaders that I see in the Facebook groups who are slamming girls and their families for not selling cookies or not selling enough cookies. Every family situation is different. The few times we sold cookies, my daughter sold very little, and I am the leader! She was too anxious to go door to door with her sister or with a friend. She enjoyed doing booths. We only did a few booths because the other leader and I both work on the weekend, as did the Cookie Manager. Goals need to be troop focused so the girls can build a sisterhood.