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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think girls become very sensitive to the opinions of peers at that age. Girl Scouts is (sadly) considered lame and for goody-goodys by many older girls.

+1 When I was a kid, it was very uncool to be in scouts in middle school.

I think this is still true.

[Anonymous]

I was bullied. They were SO mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Cheerleading is a SPORT! Can you do a backflip?

[Anonymous]

it is the same thing year after year and boring activities where you have an adult telling you what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is the same thing year after year and boring activities where you have an adult telling you what to do.

No, that's school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there aren't as many offering for older girls from Council. And you have to fill out too many forms to just take them ice skating, which is considered "high adventure".

As a leader who routinely takes her girls on many "high adventure" activities, I'd just like to say that once you get over the paperwork hurdle, doing these activities is very simple. You just have to get a permission slip for each activity, and mark the box "high adventure". We have a generic form online, and just fill in the details and have parents print it out.

You also need to be sure that any location you are going (like an ice skating rink) is properly insured. County operated ice rinks are no problem, and there is a list of vendors that are already approved.

I don't think you need to worry about insurance if you are just going to skate on a frozen pond... but that's not really an option around here anyhow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there aren't as many offering for older girls from Council. And you have to fill out too many forms to just take them ice skating, which is considered "high adventure".

I took 3rd graders ice skating for a GS event. Several local rinks will hold open houses for Scouts. They make it easy so check that out.

[Anonymous]

Many leave because they no longer have close friends in the troop and it just not perceived as "cool" anymore. In reality, you can do some really cool things if you have an active troop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Cheerleading is a SPORT! Can you do a backflip?

+1000 Who's the old-school poster here who thinks cheerleading is NOT a sport? Have you not seen cheerleaders since 1960?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the smaller troops become simply a club for the leaders daughters. And there is quite a bit of bullying in GS troops. I called the regional leader and she confirmed this was a real problem. Volunteer organization. But most girls just get very busy in 5th and 6th grade with their own activities, and do not have time. It is up to the leaders to limit the workload, and sometimes that does not happen.

When I started to have fantasies of punching the leaders out for being so incredibly rude and bullying my daughters, she dropped out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the smaller troops become simply a club for the leaders daughters. And there is quite a bit of bullying in GS troops. I called the regional leader and she confirmed this was a real problem. Volunteer organization. But most girls just get very busy in 5th and 6th grade with their own activities, and do not have time. It is up to the leaders to limit the workload, and sometimes that does not happen.

When I started to have fantasies of punching the leaders out for being so incredibly rude and bullying my daughters, she dropped out.

This sentence would be a good example for a class on why grammar is important for clarity of communication.

[Anonymous]

I left because the leaders never wanted to do anything interesting. We would be forced to do activities that could be bad some ones health (such as camping) against our will. As well as the fact that these leaders KNOW I hate girl scouts. I stated that last year. So they signed me up with out me knowing and told my mom I love girl scouts. They are always telling you to be yourself, yet if you are a off person like me, they tr to force you to be prim and proper. A lot of these girls are well mannered suck ups who always get their way. Therefore girl scouts is just not the right place for me or anyone else who might have a certain allergy, or is not exactley prim and proper

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left because the leaders never wanted to do anything interesting. We would be forced to do activities that could be bad some ones health (such as camping) against our will. As well as the fact that these leaders KNOW I hate girl scouts. I stated that last year. So they signed me up with out me knowing and told my mom I love girl scouts. They are always telling you to be yourself, yet if you are a off person like me, they tr to force you to be prim and proper. A lot of these girls are well mannered suck ups who always get their way. Therefore girl scouts is just not the right place for me or anyone else who might have a certain allergy, or is not exactley prim and proper

Me again
As well as the fact that girl scouts consists of girls whose mothers are the leaders, they can always get their way, leaders spoil their daughters and brag about them. They never hesitate to embarrass you at a meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I left because the leaders never wanted to do anything interesting. We would be forced to do activities that could be bad some ones health (such as camping) against our will. As well as the fact that these leaders KNOW I hate girl scouts. I stated that last year. So they signed me up with out me knowing and told my mom I love girl scouts. They are always telling you to be yourself, yet if you are a off person like me, they tr to force you to be prim and proper. A lot of these girls are well mannered suck ups who always get their way. Therefore girl scouts is just not the right place for me or anyone else who might have a certain allergy, or is not exactley prim and proper

Me again
As well as the fact that girl scouts consists of girls whose mothers are the leaders, they can always get their way, leaders spoil their daughters and brag about them. They never hesitate to embarrass you at a meeting

I think you've made a mistake -- this is a forum for moms and dads ABOUT "older kids and teenagers" =--- it's not a forum FOR older kids and teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Cheerleading is a SPORT! Can you do a backflip?

+1000 Who's the old-school poster here who thinks cheerleading is NOT a sport? Have you not seen cheerleaders since 1960?

Cheerleading is not a sport. Give me a break.