To Girl Scout or not to Girl Scout
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Anonymous
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Most of my daughter’s friends are part of a Girl Scout troop and we are discussing having her join.
During the school year, my daughter generally has 1 sport, an activity of her choice, and a weekend morning of religious school (my choice). She generally doesn’t like to be too scheduled. Pro of joining Girl Scouts appears to be socializing with friends. Cons of joining are that between DD and her sibling we’ve got plenty going on. Anything else I’m missing? I can’t decide if the pro or con is stronger here. |
Anonymous
| My daughter’s troop only meets once or twice a month…I don’t know if other troops meet more often, but it hasn’t been a problem for us with scheduling. It’s been a really positive experience for her. |
Anonymous
| Try it. You can always decide not to continue. |
Anonymous
Same. We can't make all the meetings, but it's still been wonderful. They've done exciting things over the past few years like camping and slingshots, but also more personal development things like discussing stereotypes and manners and learning how to be a friend. And practical skills like lighting matches and cooking simple meals and basic budgeting and online safety. Troop dynamics and activities depend a lot on the parents who volunteer, but in general the kids who have stuck with it in my daughters' troops have benefited and grown in confidence. You also get access to summer camps. I teach a weekend class and notice that the teens who volunteer to step up and fill a role when needed and aren't afraid to try new things often have scouting experience. Good leaders. It could be that scouting attracts this kind of kid, but I think there's more to it. |
Anonymous
| My daughter loves Girl Scouts. We can’t go to everything. They meet once or twice per month. We go if we can. No big deal if we can’t. The activities are really fun for my daughter. |
Anonymous
| As a program, I think Girl Scouts tends to be weaker than some of the other alternatives in that space (4H, AHG, Boy Scouts Except Now It's Also Girls), but your daughter already has a bunch of friends there, and that makes up for a lot. I'd give it a try. You don't need to make it to every meeting, you don't need to do all the optional activities, and, of course, it's cheap: if it turns out that your daughter (or you) doesn't like it, it's easy enough to drop. |
Anonymous
| GS is not a huge time commitment for my daughter. |
Anonymous
| At our school, Girl Scouts has a pretty big presence. A lot of the pta moms are also the Girl Scouts moms. They do a lot of fun events together, celebrate birthdays, etc. Your daughter may feel left out. |
Anonymous
| GS IME was not a big time commitment. A couple meetings a month, maybe one outing. A couple weekend events during the year. DD participated into middle school. She was never super into it but got enough out of it that she continued. |
Anonymous
| GS IME was a big time commitment. They had expectations of my child to attend two meetings a month, but they had much larger expectations of the parents. Fortunately my daughter hated it and so we were able to get out. |
Anonymous
| Our troop meets twice a month and during busy periods we might have another two events during a month (cookie booths, World Thinking Day, etc.), but it's all optional. My daughter does most things, other girls miss half the meetings, but everyone is welcome when they come. We do really encourage parents to help, nothing gets done without volunteers, but I also know most of the parents don't do much more than bring snacks a couple times a year. The program does vary a lot by troop though. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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I'm a leader for a now 5th grade troop.
It's truly been one of the best experiences I could have imagined for both me and my daughter. Like others have said, it's not a huge time commitment. Troops can really set their own schedule, but most that I know of have meetings every other week, and then weekend activities as they pop up (this year our weekend events included camping trips, archery day, large GS community events, service days, etc.) I have a few girls in my troop in travel sports and competitive dance, and they are still beloved and active members. If they miss a meeting or an event, it's not a big deal. More than a lot of activities, Girl Scouts is what you make of it and offers a lot of flexibility. So I have some girls who have earned bronze awards, go to all the events, participate in extra Service Unit or Council events, etc. Those girls are doing GS things at least once a week, sometimes more, but that's definitely not required. It's also supposed to be girl led, so your daughter should be doing the activities that she and the other girls choose, and should hold each other accountable for the level of commitment they want from each other. Give it a try. I hope she loves it! |
Anonymous
This might just be you experience with Girl Scouts - because it's volunteer run, it's really all about what the troop leaders make of it. My older daughter's troop leaders have been amazing and have done so many really cool things with them (they've earned tons of badges, awards, camping, field trips, even an overnight out of town trip), while my younger daughter's troop leaders (one of which is me) have been kind of half-assed about it lately. I agree with PPs though that it's worth trying. It's only $25 and you don't even have to sell cookies if you don't want to. |
Anonymous
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I sort of wished I'd nudged my DD into it a bit more. Mainly because the summer camp is so cheap and I wish we had that option for an over night!
I really dislike the cookie selling though. |