Responsible chaperones = good group of kids; I'm-on-vacation chaperone mindset = kids run wild.
It's a very fine line to balance between letting boys be boys... and losing complete control and having them run amok....
The core Leadership team I work with has consists of 5 or 6 wonderful men (and me) who have grown into their leadership together. The leaders who have joined us along the way are, thankfully, of a very similar mindset to the rest of us. We are able to share the responsibility of leadership, along with being able to enjoy our vacations.
A lot of us (myself for one) use up almost all of our available vacation time each year to spend with the Scouts and take them on trips like this. So we have learned to take "adult time outs" while we're on trips in order to be able to enjoy our vacation... as well as letting the boys enjoy theirs too. This also gives us a little better perspective towards the end of a week long trip when most leaders are in the "whatever, lets just go home" frame of mind. By rotating "time outs" and allowing decompression time for those in charge of the trip, we always have a "fresh" set of leadership on point to deal with the boys... I think this helps a tremendous amount in keeping the boys reigned in and helping keep them focused on who they are and who they're representing...
