Dear Mrs. McVeigh,
I have been a Girl Scout leader for 4 years. I always include all the girls when I make decisions about their activities. There is one mom who has always questions everything I do, and she says that I don’t let the girls pick anything. It has gotten worse in the past couple of months. This mother has been hounding me with rude comments, telling other leaders that I am doing things wrong, etc. I have gotten her involved with the service unit – thinking that this would help her to understand how much work the leaders do. This has only made it worse – now she tells more people how bad I am.
I am at my wits end on what to do. I don’t want to quit but she is pushing me that way.
Help!
Dear Help,
I think that it was a great idea to get this mother involved, but that obviously is not working. It is at the point that you need to sit this woman down one on one and tell her you know that she is not satisfied with your leadership, and would like to know if she has any suggestions or advice for you. I would try killing her with kindness and tell her you really respect her opinions, etc… Try this route and see what she has to say for herself. She will probably back down. If she does not, then I would offer to let her take the lead for the next few meetings, and see how things go. She will most likely decline the offer, or will see how hard it really is if she takes you up on it. Continue on this “overly nice” path, and next time you hear that she is bad mouthing you, tell the source that you are sorry that this woman feels this way, because you think a lot of her.