Cub scout vs girl scout
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Anonymous
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DD is in K, so she has an option to join cub scout or girl scout. We have an older DS in 4th grade, and he is not interested in scouting. I would say that I would not bring him if she joins girl scout but I may bring him on den meeting or big group outing(if family oriented or allowed) when all grades are there
DD is a bit shy but she is family. She has been a tail of her older brother. Cub scout or girl scout for her? |
Anonymous
| Our DD was in K at the same time Cub Scouts started allowing girls to join. They really tried hard to recruit us, but ultimately we chose Girl Scouts and I am really glad we did. It helped her grow a broad group of friends and “girl” community with her classmates, and even though most of them have grown apart, those early friendships have served her well. Now that they are in MS, even though they all aren’t still close, they have a “build in ally” of sorts. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like these girls all have a different connection than she has with her classmates who she didn’t Scout with, if that makes sense. |
Anonymous
| I would base the decision on your DD's interests. Does she enjoy camping and the outdoors or she is more of an indoors girl? Cub Scouts for former, Girl Scouts for latter. Some GS troops do a little camping, but many do none at all. My DD loved Cub Scouts, and is with a few of the same girls as she moved up to Scouts. The outdoors focus was best suited to her interests and temperament. And it is inspiring her to watch the older girls make Eagle. |
Anonymous
| Neither? |
Anonymous
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My experience is with Girl Scouts, but I'm close with people active in Cub Scouts. For us, the answer came down to wanting our daughter in a female led and oriented program; she's got two dads, and it was important to us that she get exposure to female spaces and groups.
In terms of the program, Cub Scouts is a lot more standardized. You know what you're getting with Cub Scouts more than Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts has a lot more variance by troop. Some troops are great, some aren't, and they come and go. Cub Scout packs last indefinitely and there's generally a lot more continuity and less reinventing the wheel, which is some I'm jealous of as a Girl Scout parent. You also know that Cub Scouts will be outdoors if that matters to you. Girl Scouts can be, and often are, but you can also have troops that are based on other kinds of activities and don't camp much at all. The flexibility can be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. At the upper levels, I also like the BSA badges better, in terms of their focus on mastery and accomplishment, which is kind of downplayed in favor of a "let's try it" approach in Girl Scouts. The flipside of that, in lower levels, I think the Girl Scout badge approach is great. When you're young, just trying something is great. When you're in middle school or above, actually getting competence by repeatedly doing something or gaining real mastery makes more sense as a goal. Overall, we've had a good experience with Girl Scouts, though. Our daughter has made friends, she's tried lots of things, she's gained confidence, and has some fantastic adult women as role models. If I were in charge of Girl Scouts, there's changes I'd make, but we're happy. |
Anonymous
I completely disagree! Our GS troop held most fair-weather meetings outdoors, or, involved activities that were held outdoors (painting, crafting, games, singing and dancing, etc) our GS troop outings also were mostly outdoors. We camped, went sledding, went swimming, apple picking, pumpkin patch, lavender garden, hiking in woods, touch a truck, countless other things, all outdoors. |
Anonymous
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If your DD has been the “tail” of her older brother and you would bring that brother to Cub Scout meetings, even though he’s not interested, how is that serving your daughter? Put her in Girl Scouts where she can form her own identity, apart from being her brother’s sister.
Plus, Girl Scouts are awesome. Daisys/Brownies do awesome, fun, diverse activities including crafts AND camping AND singing AND hiking…and a ton more. |
Anonymous
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Official Girl Scout policy is that Girl Scout meetings and events are supposed to include only the registered (and background checked and trained) leaders and Girl Scouts. Plenty of troops operate more like Cub scouts and include the entire family, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be. We really liked Girl Scouts because it was a space where our DD could be independent of us from an early age, including on hikes, outings and camping trips (although I did get registered and trained as an outdoor leader, so I ended up helping with that stuff). Girl Scouts is also girl-led, so the girls themselves are choosing what they want to pursue as a troop. In early years, good leaders are setting up a lot of guardrails to help them succeed, but eventually they are managing their own budgets, badge planning, and travel planning.
We didn’t like Cub scouts because the family inclusion aspect of it seemed to attract kids who weren’t able to separate from their parents and vice versa. It was exhausting to be around anxious parents and disregulated kids after a long day. Parents also ended up doing most of the work for the kids. That was our experience with two different Cub Scout groups but hopefully it was unique to us. |
Anonymous
I would call this "outdoors lite," at best. Are they doing weekend- and week-long camping and high adventure trips? Going white water rafting and rock climbing? Learning how to kayak and sail? Doing easy hikes or challenging hikes carrying all their gear on their backs? Learning first aid and survival skills? Scouts BSA is for serious outdoor enthusiasts. The early focus is camping skills. If that doesn't seem like a good fit for your DD, GS is better. |
Anonymous
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I also think it depends heavily on who your troop leadership is. I have a son so we're doing Cub Scouts and our troop is very outdoor oriented (mostly hikes at his age). My son's troop is still pretty boy heavy, so would that be an environment she's comfortable in?
I'd just talk to her, talk to some parents and get a feel for what the activities are like. I'd follow her interests. |
Anonymous
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I am a volunteer in both programs and have kids in both. A LOT depends on how strong each program is at your school, and the people running it. But with that said, I would tend toward GS for girls. I just don't think that most BSA (name changed again recently but I'll use BSA) troops have done a great job integrated girls. What I've seen is that a few girls join cub scouts in K or 1, and it's sort of okay, but that they are totally ostracized by third or fourth grade when the boys and girls generally stop wanting to hang out (until 8th-9th, when they start hanging out again). I know there are a couple of very active all-girl BSA troops in the area and I think the experience would be different with them.
There are also some substantive differences in the programs, each of which can cut both ways: 1. GS troops are formed and then run through 12th grade. BSA has 2 separate programs that are really run separately -- Cub Scout dens/troops, and then BSA troops that start at 6th grade. So everything shuffles at 6th grade, at which point the troops become very mixed age (6th-12). 2. GS is girl-led throughout, with an emphasis on increaing independence gradually. Meaning the girls/troop decide what to do in any given year. In Cub Scouts, parents are involved at every step -- must attend meetings (whereas in GS this is not expected or encouraged, as it interferes with them developing independence). In cub scouts, my son wasn't building fires really at all. And then by 6th grade, they are basically set free with almost no adult supervision--supervised only by the older boys who are usually 7-10 graders. In GS, my girls were learning to build fires by 1st/2nd grade, could do it themselves with supervision by 5th/6th grade, and the withdrawal of supervision is much more gradual. 3. GS is very "choose your own adventure" where troops can basically do whatever they are interested in (although all are encouraged to get outdoors and do service projects). BSA has a set of rigid requirements that they will all do, even in cub scouts -- tehy will all learn to carve (at least a little), they will all learn knots, etc. BSA is really regiimented, with an almost military structure and a lot of requirements (such as time-in-grade for rank advancement) that can sometimes be bureacratic. Because GS is more free form, whether a troop does things like camping will depend a lot on the individual girls and also whether they have parents who are willing to get camp-certified. My younger troop only camps about once a year, because my girls unfortunately don't really like camping, but we do a lot of other outdoor activities like hikes, zip-lining, canoes, archery, stream cleanup, etc. My usual advice for parents is that if it's important to you that the troop camp, get certified early as the camp person, and get the girls doing it early, in the 2nd-3rd grade ages when they are really open to that experience. 4. Because GS is girl-led and only girls, there is a big focus on girl empowerment and providing female role models for girls. At the HS level, that includees things like mentorship programs with female CEOs and scientists, etc. At the lower level, that often includes older girls teaching younger girls how to do things like build fires, etc. Some of the badges also have some sort of feminist themes -- for instance, there are a couple badges that are focused on things like peer pressure, media depiction of women, etc., some of which can be helpful for the tween girls that are navigating this stuff in a way that's different from boys. |
Anonymous
This is a big part of the appeal of GSUSA for me. There's a good amount of research that the best way to build resilience in girls, especially heading into the middle school relational aggression years, is by having multiple different groups of friends. As a family we don't attend a church or anything like that, so we have family friends with kids roughly the same age, school friends, and friends from sports. GS adds another group of friends to the mix so that if we hit 13 and all of a sudden her friends at school all turn on her in some queen bee nonsense, she hopefully will have a built in sense that she's not the problem, because all these other groups of friends and acquaintances aren't doing the same thing. |
Anonymous
| PP here and as a matter of fact, my 7th grade Girl Scouts have been white water rafting (my HS Boy Scout has not). My Girl Scout camps 2 nights at a time since 4th grade with her troop, and without a parent. My son’s first time doing that with Boy Scouts was 6th grade Klondike which was also his first time camping without parents requires. Both of my kids kayak and canoe with their respective girl/Boy Scout troop. Both have camped overnight for a week at summer camp. Neither has camped for a week with their troop. My son’s very large and active BSA troop does 100% park and pitch camping. If you want to do any “serious outdoor” activities like survival skills and backpacking camping, it’s through an adjunct trip, not through the troop. Girl Scouts has the same type of adjunct adventures. Both, of course, are at an age appropriate level…the idea that Kindergarten cub scouts are outside, braving the elements and learning survival skills training while Kindergarten Daisys are sitting inside at a table coloring is silly. |
Anonymous
I've been in both programs for 13 years now and what you are describing is BSA, NOT cub scouts. My girls learned more outdoor skills in GS for the ES grades, because the parents were not all coming with them and sleeping in tents with them for each campout. And my cubscouts were definitely not doing week-long camping and high adventure trips, going white water rafting or rock climbing. (But my GS troops did do high adventure including white water rafting at that age.) Also, at least around here, the cub scouts does not have overnight summer camps, whereas GS will start sleepaway summer camps (or spring break) as early as K or 1st grade. I agree that BSA makes the serious outdoor skills easier to access that GS at the 6th-12th grade level. That stuff is there for GS at that level, but it takes a little more effort by girls to seek it out, whereas it is incorporated readily for BSA at those ages. I'm just so sick of these posters that say GS is for girls that just want to sit around and string beads --- that's not at all accurate and it's just so sexist to say that. It also can become a self-fulfilling prophecy (like saying girls are bad at math) -- in that parents will then not make those opportunities available for the girls, which drives me absolutely nuts. One difference is the GS in this area does not allow shooting, whereas BSA has rifle shooting at all their camps. Shooting and sky diving are the only high-adventure things that GSCNC does not permit. But, if you want target sports, the GS camps do have knife and ax-throwing for 6th grade and up (archery starting at 4th grade, and slingshots at 2nd, I think). |
Anonymous
Kindergarten cub scouts are not learning how to sail or hiking with all of their gear on their backs. You guys try so hard to make the case that every kid who joins Scouts is actually an Army Ranger while every kid who joins Girl Scouts lives in a bubble and it's ridiculous. Camping, sledding, swimming, hiking, etc. are all perfectly reasonable and age appropriate for OP's daughter. |