Miscellaneous

Mother Knew Best

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Esther’s Writing Prompts #85
incorporating the word “club”.
Here’s where the prompt led me.

© Getty Images

My love for music and performing began as a young girl, singing in our church choir and later, joining my school’s glee club and drama club.

One of my best friends wanted me to join Girl Scouts with her; she wasn’t in the other clubs with me and we didn’t get to spend as much time together as we used to. When I talked to my mother about joining Girl Scouts, she warned me that I might be taking on too much, but because I wanted to be with my friend, I promised I’d be able to handle everything. Mom, ever the pragmatic parent, gave her ok but reminded me that she didn’t raise me to be a quitter: “Don’t even think about dropping Scouts half-way through or you’ll regret it.”

No big surprise, I hated being a Girl Scout; I just wasn’t “Scout material” and I was ready to quit after two weeks. I actually tried to get myself thrown out but I think they were on to me! When I told my mother I wanted to quit Girl Scouts, she shocked me with her response:

“OK, but if you quit Scouts, you’re going to have to quit all your other clubs, too. You can’t go through life flitting from one commitment to another.”

I was shocked! I couldn’t believe what my mother was saying and that she would dangle my other clubs over my head! No matter how much I begged, she wouldn’t budge. I was stuck and realized I had no choice but to stay with the Scouts. Begrudgingly, I gave in; I couldn’t risk losing choir, glee club and drama club.

I didn’t enjoy my year with the Girl Scouts at all but that didn’t matter to my mother. What mattered was teaching me to be responsible and aware of the commitments and promises I made.

Would my mother actually have followed through on her threat? I don’t know but I wasn’t willing to call her bluff.

NAR©2025

This is “Your Mother Should Know” by the Beatles

Writing Prompts

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

22 thoughts on “Mother Knew Best”

    1. My mother had quite an arsenal of “unique” ways to get me to toe the line. She truly meant well but some of her methods were highly irregular. One message she liked to send had to do with my clothing drawers. If she thought the drawers were messy, she’d dump the contents onto my bed. When I came home from school, I’d have to put everything neatly away if I had any hope of sleeping in my bed. 🤷🏼‍♀️

      Thanks Lisa; I enjoyed your comments. 😎

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  3. Nice story, Nancy and I am sure there is a lesson in there someplace. I was a cub scout for one day. It was raining and the den mother had all the scouts inside cutting out paper flowers and I hated it. When the meeting was over, I called all the other scouts sissies and one of them punched me and that was it for me.

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    1. Hahaha! Now why didn’t I think of that?! Funny story, Jim, and I can see it happening on some sitcom from the 60s. I may be a pain in the butt about being responsible but I’d rather be that way than some lazy slouch who makes empty promises. I think my mother would be proud of me.

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  4. I don’t know, it wasn’t like you would be letting anyone down if you quit Girl Scouts, it’s not a team sport where your presence is necessary for everyone to succeed. If my kid tried something like that and wanted out, I would have let her. I was in 4-H for a while and didn’t care for it and my mother let me try something else.

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