Anonymous
11/03/2023 17:26
Subject: cub scout for DS or girl scout for DD, choose one only
I would not do either unless they express interest. If you must choose, Boy Scouts for your son.
These experiences will be different with every troop or pack. Here’s how it was for us:
Boy Scouts: families were welcome and encouraged to come, siblings welcome. When they were little, it was chaotic and a lot of kids running around. Lots of hands on activities indoors and out.
Girl Scouts, 2 different troops: drop off. Parents were not allowed to be there unless you were an official volunteer for a field trip and you had to go through a bunch of paperwork to qualify. Parents were never allowed at meetings. My daughter didn’t like either troop and continued a while because of friends. They were craft based or seemed out dated. A lot of sitting and procedures. It wasn’t fun and the main activity of the year was selling cookies.
These experiences will be different with every troop or pack. Here’s how it was for us:
Boy Scouts: families were welcome and encouraged to come, siblings welcome. When they were little, it was chaotic and a lot of kids running around. Lots of hands on activities indoors and out.
Girl Scouts, 2 different troops: drop off. Parents were not allowed to be there unless you were an official volunteer for a field trip and you had to go through a bunch of paperwork to qualify. Parents were never allowed at meetings. My daughter didn’t like either troop and continued a while because of friends. They were craft based or seemed out dated. A lot of sitting and procedures. It wasn’t fun and the main activity of the year was selling cookies.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 16:23
Subject: cub scout for DS or girl scout for DD, choose one only
Anonymous wrote:As a working mom of three I have the way you’ve set up the question to put thie kids in competition with each other. If you really really must choose I think it depends on your kids and which is more in need of the benefits of scouting or will benefit more. For instance does one kid really need help coming out of their shell or does one really love the outdoors, etc.
But it’s also relevant that Cub scouts is a ton more work for parents. You need to attend two meetings per month at least plus there are usually two family camping trips per year that you’ll have to attend.
Girl Scouts typically does not want parents attending all the meetings because it interferes with girls developing independence and relationships within the troop. So it depends a lot on the troop but they will typically look for occasional aren’t volunteers to help with field trips or meetings, depending a lot on the ages and what they are doing and the leader comfort level. You’d have to talk to the leaders to see what the expectation is for the parents in that troop.
The Cub Scout motto is to do your best. You don’t have to do everything, if you miss a meeting you miss a meeting. If you don’t want to camp then don’t camp. Plenty of kids don’t ever attend a camp out as a Cub Scout. We had kids who would come for the day time activities and leave after the campfire. The kids can make up missed adventures at home if they miss a required one to earn the rank patch at the end of the year. None of them were time consuming, most adventures can be completed in a hour long meeting with up to 10 5-10 year olds running around. They took far less time at home with just one kid and a parent.
Most of the parents who stayed for meetings hung out and talked to each other. Some parents brought their laptops and worked. Parents stayed out of the meeting unless the Den Leader asked for help. I don’t know if 3 hours of meetings throughout a month is a ton of time.