# Dear Girl Guides, All our daughter wants for Christmas, is to be included….



## Pumper_Sue (Dec 20, 2014)

Dear Girl Guides, All our daughter wants for Christmas, is to be included….

Yesterday, 18th December 2014, the Girl Guide Association posed a question:

“What do girls and young women want for Christmas this year?”

The answer to this, Girlguiding, is very simple.

All our 6 year old daughter wants for Christmas is to be INCLUDED in your organisation, not EXCLUDED as she currently is…..

Our daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and Coeliac Disease.
 She has an insulin pump attached to her 24/7. She has to eat gluten free food.
 She is incredibly brave, stoical and helpful.

http://www.bestbuggy.co.uk/2014/12/all-our-daughter-wants-for-christmas-is-to-be-included/

I find this story appalling and feel ashamed that as a child I was ever a member of this organisation.


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## Northerner (Dec 20, 2014)

I'm appalled and disgusted by this  They should be ashamed.


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## Sally71 (Dec 20, 2014)

They aren't all like that!  My daughter attends Brownies and went on an activity weekend with them last April.  We had the leaders and DSN at our house to go through everything that would need to be done.  I was a bag of nerves the whole weekend she was away but of course everything was fine and I thought the leaders did really well.

What a shame there is such a variation in attitudes!  This report is utterly shocking and nothing like our experience at all, but makes the whole organisation look a complete disgrace.


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## KookyCat (Dec 20, 2014)

That is appalling!  they shouldn't be in charge if they think treating any child that way is acceptable


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## Northerner (Dec 20, 2014)

Sally71 said:


> What a shame there is such a variation in attitudes!  This report is utterly shocking and nothing like our experience at all, but makes the whole organisation look a complete disgrace.



Quite. Whilst it should never have even started, if at least they had rectified it quickly they might have excused, but to let it escalate so badly is unforgiveable by the particular leaders involved


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## Bessiemay (Dec 20, 2014)

Also how can leaders in such an organisation as this display such dishonesty. What an example.  Of course they didn't expect to be found out about the "cancelled" meeting but I can almost remember my guides law and promise and it included honesty and helping other people at all times.


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## trophywench (Dec 21, 2014)

Ditto.

Yours,

Disgusted
Bedworth.


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## HOBIE (Dec 21, 2014)

Well Done to the parents of this little girl !  They have been on the ball getting a "Freestyle Libre" for her & if the brownie leader had any brains could have read it in seconds without any carry on.  They are ex for this type of thing


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## trophywench (Dec 21, 2014)

What it boils down to is that the group leaders are not prepared to be inclusive by changing anything they do, learn anything new, or be open minded about things.

So it's them we should be ranting at, not the GG movement - though they should really ask pertinent questions before appointing leaders - you know - just the same as doing the 'working with children' CRB checks, as it's different to the 'adult' one.  Much to my surprise, I had to have an adult CRB check when I was taking part in a thing at Warwick Uni, to teach/demonstrate/inform medical students what it's really like to live with diabetes (other people did other conditions that they had)   That CRB check was very very clear that it didn't allow me to do the same for schoolchildren.

These leaders are in no different position than schoolteachers, are they?  While the children are with them, they stand in loco parentis.

I wonder - would the schools pack produced by DUK, be useful here ?


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## HOBIE (Dec 21, 2014)

So we should be educating people how good the tech is getting (Freestyle Libre)


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## trophywench (Dec 21, 2014)

No Hobie - we should be teaching them to be INCLUSIVE.

If they learn something about technology along their learning curve (and it's gonna be a steep one for these people) then all well and good - but NONE of the technology calculates the carbs for us.


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 21, 2014)

trophywench said:


> No Hobie - we should be teaching them to be INCLUSIVE.
> 
> If they learn something about technology along their learning curve (and it's gonna be a steep one for these people) then all well and good - but NONE of the technology calculates the carbs for us.



As the little one has coeliac as well then her meals would have been sorted by her parents and popped in air tight containers with carb values on her food. So nothing complicated to sort out. Also parents a stones throw away so all that needed to be done was for one of the parents to pop along and supervise the pump operation.
I just can not see what the problem is.


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## HOBIE (Dec 21, 2014)

HOBIE said:


> Well Done to the parents of this little girl !  They have been on the ball getting a "Freestyle Libre" for her & if the brownie leader had any brains could have read it in seconds without any carry on.  They are ex for this type of thing


 I am pleased for her that she has good parents


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## trophywench (Dec 22, 2014)

I had no idea parents of children with coeliac/diabetes did this automatically - as I've never personally known children with either let alone both.

The thing is though if I was the parent I'd want to know what was planned mealwise so I could let my child have something roughly resembling what the others had, you know - so they didn't feel different.  So a sandwich at lunchtime would be a sandwich for my child too, just made with different bread etc   And I'd expect the leaders to make sure they got it presented in much the same way too.

But surely a parent wouldn't have to do it for 'just' a diabetic child?  I mean - it's hardly rocket science to calculate the carbs in a piece of sliced bread, is it? - just read the packet !

Grief, if the leader was stumped - they could easily ring mum and ask her to work it out and tell them what insulin to dispense.  Not like they have to give jabs for this little girl anyway.

Plus I do NOT understand what the heck the GG Association are doing by not responding to the proper complaints - should think old Baden Powell is spinning in his grave ....... I hope heads roll at the top, if not the bottom, I really do.


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 22, 2014)

> I had no idea parents of children with coeliac/diabetes did this automatically - as I've never personally known children with either let alone both.



If gluten about everything has to be kept separate. You can not even toast bread in the same toaster in case of contamination. Putting butter on bread has to be a separate knife from that used for proper bread.
I can imagine it would be very daunting for a carer to suddenly have all this dumped on them would be very daunting.
Hence why it helps to have carb values on everything so it isn't so obvious to that child or others at the time of fun.
My Mum always put the carb values on my packed lunch for school so I learnt that way and made my own choices as I grew older.


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