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Scout Tenderfoot 2nd Class 1st Class Star Life Eagle

Family Life Merit Badge

All Merit Badges

Revised January, 2019

Requirements for the Family Life merit badge:

Prepare an outline on what a family is and discuss this with your merit badge counselor. Tell why families are important to individuals and to society. Discuss how the actions of one member can affect other members.
List several reasons why you are important to your family and discuss this with your parents or guardians and with your merit badge counselor.
Prepare a list of your regular home duties or chores (at least five) and do them for 90 days. Keep a record of how often you do each of them. Discuss with your counselor the effect your chores had on your family.
With the approval of your parents or guardians and your merit badge counselor, decide on and carry out a project that you would do around the home that would benefit your family. Submit a report to your merit badge counselor outlining how the project benefited your family.
Plan and carry out a project that involves the participation of your family. After completing the project, discuss the following with your merit badge. counselor:
1. The objective or goal of the project
2. How individual members of your family participated
3. The results of the project
Do the following:
1. Discuss with your merit badge counselor how to plan and carry out a family meeting.
2. After this discussion, plan and carry out a family meeting* to include the following subjects:
  1. Avoiding substance abuse, including tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, all of which negatively affect your health and well-being
  2. Understanding the growing-up process and how the body changes, and making responsible decisions dealing with sex
  3. How your chores in requirement 3 contributed to your role in the family
  4. Personal and family finances
  5. A crisis situation within your family
  6. The effect of technology on your family
  7. Good etiquette and manners
  Discussion of each of these subjects will very likely carry over to more than one family meeting.
Discuss with your counselor your understanding of what makes an effective parent and why, and your thoughts on the parent's role and responsibilities in the family.

*This conversation may take place with only one or both of your parents or guardians.

Family Life Worksheet

All Merit Badges

Comments:
Apr 29, 2014 - Christine

When my older boy went through Scouts, we owned our home so his project for Family Life #4 was relatively easy to come up with. Now my youngest is going through the Troop and we rent our home (since July) and we're having some difficulty finding a project to fulfill the requirement. We are unable to paint, plant gardens or change the yard, or anything that might be considered a permanent change. Everything we've come up with has been shot down by the landlord. Any suggestions on possible projects would be very helpful and greatly appreciated.

Apr 29, 2014 - Scouter Paul

@Christine - It doesn't need to be a project of a permanent nature. Our library loans out "Energy Audit" kits which can be used to check how much electricity is being wasted by plugged in devices. Making a plan to minimize your family's electric, water, A/C, heating waste could be a useful project. Clean out your garage or storage area. Sort and pack old toys and clothes to make more room and donate to an organization. Improve security or safety with window alarms, CO monitors, water leak sensors by the hot water heater, brighter LED outdoor lights, non-slip surface on outdoor steps, ... and such.

May 02, 2014 - Christine

Thank you very much! We actually did the spring cleaning of house, garage, and storage unit as the family project for requirement #5 during spring break. The energy audit and security/safety improvements are definite possibilities to suggest to him.

Aug 08, 2014 - Crystal

Requirement 7a mentions an effective father, what if there has never been a male in the family. As a single parent I believe I have done a pretty good job in guiding and supporting my son in all aspects. Does he overlook this and/or is penalized for not having a male role model?

Aug 08, 2014 - Scouter Paul

@Crystal - That requirement asks the scout to come up with his own thoughts on what makes a man an effective father. Expressing his view should help him prepare for that role in the future. His view comes from what he's seen and experienced, both good and bad, in real life and media. Even if he has no male role model in his immediate family, he has them in other parts of his life such as church, school, sports, scouting.

Dec 11, 2014 - Lynne

Requirement #5 Since it is winter making it impossible for outdoor work I was thinking of having my scout organize a family meal with all the family members participating. Also, for #4 I thought organizing and putting away all of the Christmas decorations would be a great winter project. It is quite a chore for us.

Aug 18, 2015 - Tim

Requirement #3 says that my son must do his chores for 90 days. We went on vacation this summer for two weeks, which made doing his chores impossible. His Scoutmaster is saying that these 90 days must be consecutive. I cannot find any documentation to support the SM's statement. Which is it?

Aug 18, 2015 - Scouter Paul

@Tim - The requirement doesn't say "consecutive", but it does say to keep a record of how often the chores are done over that 90 days. The "keep a record" part sure makes it seem like the scout should set aside 90 days and then record how many times the chores are done during those days.
I wouldn't expect every chore to be done every day even though the requirement says do them for 90 days, since it also says to record how many times they are done. For example, taking out the garbage may just be every few days.
So, being away from home for two weeks could be counted as part of the 90 days but the chore record is just all '0's for those days.
By the way, it doesn't matter what the scout's scoutmaster says - it's the merit badge counselor that decides what counts. With a bit of forethought, the scout could have discussed his planned 90 days that included the vacation with his counselor earlier so they'd both know if it would be acceptable or not.

Mar 08, 2016 - AS

Can you weigh in an opinion about req 6a and 6b? In 6b, does the scout discuss the actual meeting(s) with the MBC? Also, the topics are heavy to complete in just one meeting and heavy for a scout to initiate. I do see that in the latest printing it says that some items may take place with parent(s) only. That is not the issue. I have a hard time picturing a scout leading the way for a talk about 1,2,4 and 5. thanks

Mar 10, 2016 - Scouter Paul

@AS - The scout has the discussions with his parent(s) and just needs to let his counselor know they occurred. A counselor might want a parent to validate that the conversations happened.
The merit badge counselor gives guidance in #6a to the scout about a family meeting. The topics are ones that parents should be discussing with their son, and I expect the parent would be leading most of the discussion on 'heavy' topics.

Apr 22, 2016 - Concerned mom

My son has actually done FL 3 times--ugh!! We changed troops then our old troop disbanded and we had to re-group. When he completed the badge this time he didn't finish the required 90 days during the time the rest of the troop did it. He submitted his 90 days to the counselor and she rejected it saying it was now too late since the rest of the troop had completed it and been awarded the badge. Is this right?

May 30, 2016 - Dean Arrowhead

As the Dean of Merit Badges for my district, the answer is yes and no. The Counselor has the right not to sign off on any requirement. However, if the task has been done and her only excuse is that everyone else is already finished - that is completely lame - find a new merit badge counselor. It shouldn't matter what any other scout does - only the individual.

That said, why did he have to do it 3x? If he has a blue card already signed off, that should be acceptable - no matter what troop it came from. Merit Badge Counselors are registered through your district/council and can counsel any boy from any troop. Anyone who tells you differently needs to go to a training session. Again though, if it was a partial, the new MBC has the right not to accept it. However, if this MBC is being such a stick in the mud about "process" over "content," it is time to find a different counselor and recommend that this one goes to a training session on how to be a better counselor.

Aug 28, 2016 - Julie

How extensive do the projects have to be? Our son proposed a project to his MBC about landscaping around our mailbox. Her response was that planting a few flowers probably wouldn't be adequate enough. He reiterated that it was more than planting flowers. This kid dug up the grass, dug holes, planted plants mulched and watered. The only help we did was drive him to the nursery. He took pictures throughout and submitted them, then he was told that it hadn't been preapproved!

Aug 29, 2016 - Scouter Paul

@Julie - Sounds to me like your son came up with a project that benefits his family, and that his family agreed with. There is no stipulation as to the complexity or extent of a project, so that's a pretty weak reason for the counselor to not approve it, if that was the only reason.

The counselor does need to approve what the project is going to be and shouldn't be expected to accept any chore done after the fact. The scout should get approval for the project from his parents AND his counselor before doing the project. Going ahead with a project that the counselor rejected and then expecting to get credit for it wouldn't work for any counselors that I know.

Jun 14, 2017 - Vickie Slaughter

My scout has completed his requirements up to Star. I was told that he will not be able to advance any further as he is only with me during the summer months and Christmas. His mother is not interested in having him join another troop out of state where he now lives. I was told that he will not be able to finish because he will not be able to complete his leadership requirements at the star level. Do you have any suggestion?. He is 12 years old and really loves Scouting. He has been in Scouting since the second grade.

Jun 20, 2017 - Scouted Paul

@Vickie - The leadership requirements you mention are actually positions of responsibility, not leadership. One option for that is the scoutmaster may assign him a significant task outside of the normally used positions. He would talk to his scoutmaster about that.
Another option is that the months of holding a position do not need to be contiguous - your son could complete a 6 month requirement in two 3-month chunks. That would be worked out with the SPL and scoutmaster.
Your son could also get his driver license as soon as possible so he can join a troop and transport himself while living away from you.

Jun 25, 2020 - Brian

How do you deal with a situation where the scout just wrote down the chores they did over the past 90 days

Jun 28, 2020 - Scouter Paul

@Brian - Are you asking about requirement #3? That sounds like what the scout is supposed to do.

Aug 23, 2020 - Scouter Lori

One of the purposes of Requirement #3 is to get the scout to learn to keep records besides letting them see some ways they contribute to the family. The first meeting I ask them to come up with a chart/method and chores and it has to be approved by me. Brushing teeth is not approved,
reading to a little brother 2x wk is. I point out how important for an airplane mechanic to keep records, same with a Dr or at the bank and how when they get a job some day so they get paid properly. It's ok to mark they were sick and couldn't do any chores, or they were out of town, or had too much homework - but to just mark it on the chart. Ideally the scout should mark the chart at end of the day and put post chart some place he/she will remember to mark it - but doesn't usually happen that way. Every couple of days is more likely. I ask to see their chart a couple of times during the meetings - to keep them honest/on track. IF they seem to be fudging, I may ask them about how they were recording, brainstorm with them to come up with solutions to do better and might ask them to do a couple more weeks of proper recording. Have done hundreds of scouts and some fudging common, reexplain importance of record keeping - when they get their own car/taking medicine/ordering supplies etc. warranties, etc.
The scouts are pretty good - just need to listen to them and explain purpose and work with them.

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