I don't mean to argue with you. I'm confused about how to parent my Scout.

My personal motivation for reaching Eagle was my dad.

I do that, in that I routinely ask my son "What are you working on next?; I write emails to troop leadership to ask about how to meet requirements; I send him to Scout camp twice a summer. He's good with all this. He really wants to get his Eagle and he's on track to do so.

Reaching Eagle to me is less about resume bonus or other accolades, it is about perseverance and finishing a task or goal.

This highlights my concern: Is my son learning the self-management skills that the path to Eagle would presumably teach him? Am I managing him too much for him to get that?

He's already excellent at self-management, better than me, really. When we talked about the 30-day exercise requirements for Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class, I pointed out that when he finished one 30-day period he should immediately start the next one. He did that with zero input from me, taking care to meet the weekly exercise requirement and recording it all -- on his own.

So maybe I should just back off and let him self-manage to Eagle. He made First Class in his first year and he'll be Star when the required four months is done. At that point he'll have three partial Eagle badges, so he'll have enough for Life when he finishes those. If he can do the remaining six Eagle badges during his six months as a Life Scout then when he gets Life rank, all he'll have to do is the project.

Or he could take his time, and cram the last few badges and his project in during his junior year in high school.

It should be up to him.