Our first official Girl Scout Cookie selling season has come to a close in the Daudani household. My kindergartener is a Daisy so this is the first year we’ve been on the selling side of things.
Throughout our limited experience with Girl Scouts I have been pleasantly surprised with the program and the values it promotes. I didn’t think this would carry through to the cookie selling fundraiser, but boy was I wrong.
She (and I) learned a lot during the cookie selling process:
Articulating Her Point
Because I have a background in TV producing and her dad used to be on camera as a reporter, we encouraged her to make a video that we posted on Facebook for our many family and friends who don’t live in Richmond.
I felt like she should be the one to make the ask, not me or my husband. I was in total mom/producer mode and was coaching her. She quickly told me she knew what she was going to say and three takes later had a pretty good sales pitch.
I love how she thought about her message and was able to make the ask. I find that people often don’t know how to ask for things they want, especially women and I’m happy to start teaching her this skill at a young age.
Appreciation and the value of money
Some people told her no. And I was totally happy with that! It gave her an opportunity to be gracious and learn that the answer isn’t always yes. We encouraged her to say thank you to everyone and be appreciative of their time and money.
Let’s be honest, this is a luxury buy. No one NEEDS a $4 box of cookies let alone multiple boxes. They are doing it to be nice or to fill their pantries with Thin Mints. Either way, appreciation is expected.
Goal Setting
I originally thought of the cookie selling as a direct line to soothe my Thin Mint obsession but it took on a life of its own right from the beginning.
They offer incentives for the girls to sell so many boxes which encouraged my daughter to set a goal. She’s 5 so this was a new concept for her. It was really exciting for me to see how she approached this. She decided to start with the lowest goal and raise it every time she hit it. She finally stopped only because we ran out of time… and I ran out of energy to help her.
Moms, Dads, Grandmas and Aunts Should Get Badges Too
Maybe because she’s only 5, maybe because of how involved (and wonderful) my family is or maybe because it’s just how it is… this was a family affair. I went into this with the intention of making her do most of the heavy lifting.
But it turns out a 5-year-old can’t lift much.
We accompanied her around the neighborhood. We took care of all of the financial and physical accounting. This will get easier as she gets older and I make her take more responsibility but this year, I honestly feel like I earned my first Girl Scout badge too.
