Why do girls drop out of Girl Scouts in the 5th, 6th, 7th grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was Girl Scout I had a troop we went rock climbing and repel down rocks we went canoeing camping we did cooking we decorated trees for a nursing home we did all kind of things it can be fun and challenge if the leader will and if the parents will help it can be lots of adventures

Way to bring back a thread from 2013!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:My mom was a leader, and she made me do it until 5th grade, I think. It's considered dorky.

Because sports are cool. And if you're not a talented athlete, you aren't cool anyway. Drama is also dorky. Too bad the peer group gets to decide that camping and social service projects are dorky. I get so tired of the tyranny of the "popular" kids' opinions.

Yeah! to the second poster.

Of course, one way to be cool without being an athlete is be a cheerleader. If you can't be an athlete, you can be an athletic supporter.

Are you for real? Is life all about being cool to you? Are you still living in HS or are you living through your child? If you can't be an athlete, how about drama, band, FBLA, 4H (or whatever it might be called around here) or other after school activities? Life doesn't revolve around sports and cheer.

4H?!! Dork!

Our kids did 4H and girl scouts over the years. At least with 4H they had actual leadership opportunities where they really had to plan and execute activities vs girl scouts where there really weren’t those promised leadership roles. They considered selling cookies at the cookie booth a leadership activity. Also the whole cookie thing was so silly past the brownie age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a leader who will have 4th graders next year. Just wondering why girls leave Girl Scouts in the upper grades --- too many other activities? Parents don't value it or want to drive the kid to another thing? The badges require more individual work and the girl doesn't care to do it? Band/orchestra involvement? Been there/done that and moving on?

Wondering what the disconnect is for girls and/or their parents.

My older girl didn’t drop out and was active through senior year. Wonderful troop of nice girls. A decade later, they are friends still and bridesmaids for each other.
My younger DD dropped out after 6th because the troop was ruined by a queen bee and her mother. Troop dropped by 2/3 over two years.

[Anonymous]

Girls that age want to engage in challenging outdoor activities and aren't interested in indoor crafts or glamping trips to hotel rooms.

[Anonymous]

My kid will probably drop out of GS next year. Our troop leaders do basically nothing. We've had 2 meetings since the start of school. None more are planned. I'm the treasurer and the women who run it just don't have much interest. We only have 6 girls now and I think next year we won't have enough for a troop.

[Anonymous]

Op - because they want to pick their friends. Building group relationships has value, but only to a point. At some point with busier lives, they want to spend their social time with kids of their choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it is totally dorky. I am so grateful neither if my kids wanted to do boy or Girl Scouts. I was a brownie -fun. Then a Girl Scout. That fun lasted about 2 years, maybe. Yuck. All that conformity and having to do what everyone else is doing, hideous uncomfortable uniforms, such middle America values.

There are so any other activities for building the skills scouting purports to focus on: sports teams for leadership and working with others, sleep away camp for outdoorsy skills, music and art lessons for the arts, etc... Scouting just seems so outdated and, well, honestly, middle America in that negative, bland, boring, conformist, uninspired, way.

I agree. I would never send my child to be a girls scout. Seems so lame to me.

[Anonymous]

It's just not fun.

[Anonymous]

I'm a leader of middle schoolers and I love it, and so does my daughter.
But we're both dorks.
My troops is filled with such a wide range of girls - it's part of what makes it fantastic! We run the gamut from the "cool kids" who are high level soccer players and competitive dancers to the "dorks" who do what some of you would consider lame activities. I love that my troop is a place for them to feel welcomed and included and where they get to try all sorts of new adventures. (this year we've already had several lockins and sleepovers, gone camping, done archery, cooked new foods, collected and sorted toys for toys for tots, and done indoor rock climbing. Outdoor rock climbing, white water rafting, more archery and camping, and cooking and serving dinner at a homeless shelter are all on tap for this spring. We're also starting to plan a 4 or 5 day trip to Savannah for summer 2025.)

[Anonymous]

In my case, I ended up attending a different MS than most of the other girls in my troop. I stuck with it through 6th grade because we were going on a trip. Also my parents were pretty restrictive about the number of activities and I just wanted to do something else instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it is totally dorky. I am so grateful neither if my kids wanted to do boy or Girl Scouts. I was a brownie -fun. Then a Girl Scout. That fun lasted about 2 years, maybe. Yuck. All that conformity and having to do what everyone else is doing, hideous uncomfortable uniforms, such middle America values.

There are so any other activities for building the skills scouting purports to focus on: sports teams for leadership and working with others, sleep away camp for outdoorsy skills, music and art lessons for the arts, etc... Scouting just seems so outdated and, well, honestly, middle America in that negative, bland, boring, conformist, uninspired, way.

I agree. I would never send my child to be a girls scout. Seems so lame to me.

Nothing more non-conformist than sports and sleep away camp!

[Anonymous]

It honestly horrible. I was forced to join girl scouts by my parents since my younger sister did it. During a cookie sale, I was talking to friend when there were no customers but when there were I would greet them and do the work. But my SCOUT LEADER (I think her name’s Keisha). She posted something about losing the cookie booth and not selling anything (We sold a lot) on instagram. And I’m so pissed. I did the work so why are you putting our names up on social media saying that we did no work?! I plan on confronting her about it later.

[Anonymous]

A lot of girls have outgrown the activities. Sports/school activities are more where they want to be.

[Anonymous]

They want to choose their own friends.

Put into groups when they were younger, wasn't really their choice. They still have to get along in group settings, a lot of group settings (sport teams, class projects, ECs at school)

Girl Scouts is just one more group, with others not of their choosing.

[Anonymous]

Imagine going on the soccer forum to tell everyone how much you hate soccer, or would probably hate it if you'd played, or had a soccer mom cut you off in traffic once ... that would be unhinged. And yet it's impossible to have a thread about Girl Scouts without people rushing in to talk about how boring they think it is - even if they have never been enrolled!

I was a Girl Scout through 12th grade, and my 6th grader is still in and enjoying it. If she drops out because she becomes busy or uninterested, that's fine, just like it's fine to drop out of soccer or ballet, or stop playing an instrument. Most kids consolidate their interests as they get older.