Anyone prioritize cub scout?

[Anonymous]

DS8 is a bit social awkward, but he has some casual friends from school. He has busy schedule with aftercare (play only), soccer practice/game, swimming and others. It is my idea wanting him to join cub scout. However, after talking to the leader, it seems like it is more complicated than I thought to be.

I learn that they don't take attenance but they hope families do not miss 1×/month pack meeting and 2×/month den meetings. They have goals to earn badge. They say they welcome younger sibling to attend, but they also tell me that I have to keep my younger child busy without interruption if I bring him along. I originally thought that cub scout is some kind of membership that offers social opportunities that we would attend if we could make it. There's birthday parties and festivals/events that we kind of prioritize as well.

For families that do & prioritize cub scout, what was your goals/intention? Are they strict on commitment and attendance? Do you commit just for a year or many years down the road?

[Anonymous]

It’s not really a social club. It’s an activity.

How old is the young sibling? I’m assuming not yet in K? For a child that young, yeah, you can’t just expect the den leader to entertain the younger sibling while also leading a meeting. As your younger child gets older, they will probably also join scouts, and then they are usually welcome to participate in the activities. Our den leader has a Webelo and a Wolf. The Wolf comes to the Webelo meetings, and it’s fine.

As for missing meetings…it’s OK to miss here and there. We usually have at least one missing from each den meeting, and probably several from the pack meetings. You can make up the activities for the den meeting at home, or the den leaders sometimes pull scouts aside at the next meeting to wrap up advancement requirements.

Pack meetings are where awards are handed out, and flag ceremonies are done, and where they learn the songs and skits. I feel like those are easier to miss, but that’s also where a lot of information is given to parents, or sign-ups happen. A lot of this is done by email/online though.

There are weekend events too: scouting for food, camp outs, hikes, popcorn sales etc. You need to do a service activity every year, which usually means one of the two Scouting for Food events. They ask that you sell popcorn, but it’s not a hard requirement. A lot of badge or advancement requirements are knocked out at camp outs.

But in cub scouts, you really get out what you put in. My primary motivation was finding some friends for my kid, and giving him the chance to learn outdoor skills. If we don’t go to the meetings, we’re not really accomplishing those goals.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t say we prioritized Cub Scouts but DS participated from Tiger to AOL and bridged over to a Troop. He attended the meetings, missing a few here or there. The meetings were fun, the kids worked on skills and earned their belt loops. The activities allowed the kids to socialize and hang out at the same time as working on completing the adventure of the day. We skipped a lot of Pack meetings, those were more chaotic and less interesting as a whole. The camp outs were great fun for the kids.

The Cub Scout motto is “do your best”. Attend the meetings that you want, miss the ones that you want.There might be some material that you have to cover at home so your child can complete an adventure that is needed to earn his rank. There are lots of places to get the info on what you might need to do. Ask his Den Leader and they will let you know.

As for the younger child, he will have his own Den when he is in K but the meetings are for the kids in the Den and not the kids in the Den and their siblings. Plenty of people bring their other kids and then find something for the other kids to do while the Den meets.

[Anonymous]

I was a den leader from Lions - AOL and I only prioritized being there myself, since I had to. During my son's younger years, he rarely went to pack meetings because they were too late or too long. Also, leaders don't mind younger siblings coming to meetings, but they need to be old enough to follow instructions and listen, or mom/dad need to be very hands on. We weren't babysitters.

[Anonymous]

We've done it for 3 years because my son loves it. It is social but you only get that social element if you (parent and child) go and interact at the meetings. It is time consuming if you have other activities so it is a choice. We have been in 2 different dens in 2 cities, I've only seen 1 child kind of get left out and it is because they skipped or left a lot of meetings early so we never got to know them.

[Anonymous]

My son was in cub scouts and was a Webelo. It wasn’t a priority but an activity. In our situation, it was okay to miss and go to whatever you could. This became harder as he got older and the scout activities got more involved. We commit to overnights or full day events so he stopped.

It was good and social, especially in early elementary school. The entire family was welcome and my daughter also liked going to the meetings. There were always siblings at ours and they were welcome to participate.

[Anonymous]

It is an activity and like all activities it is social as well. It is good for awkward kids because it is a structured activity. The leaders do not baby-sit. They are volunteers and they are there to teach your kids about scouts and lead an activity.

It has been great for my son.

[Anonymous]

3 meetings a month is less than most activities meet. Try it and see if it is a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Our BSA troop meetings feel a little lord of the flies. Parents need to be more hands on than they currently are. Find a smaller troop/pack.

[Anonymous]

I think this is perfect for a socially awkward kid. My son started at a new school and was having trouble making friends and Cub Scouts was perfect for him. All the dads attend with the kids so he wasn't thrown into a situation alone. The pack has all the elementary kids so they learn to be nice to the younger ones.
There is one girl in the pack and she definitely seems to be left out because she seems uninterested in the activities and the other kids. I don't know why her parents are pushing it.

[Anonymous]

I did for my socially anxious child. He is thriving in this environment with his fellow nerds.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we did. Dad became a leader. Kid (SN) made eagle and got into his top college picks.

[Anonymous]

My socially anxious DS thrives in it

[Anonymous]

My husband is a Den leader and my boys are a Weeblo (4th grade) and a Tiger (1st grade). How much participation is needed depends on the den. Ours is pretty low key and there are 2 camping trips per year (1 night each in spring and fall), one den event and one pack event each month. There are some things the kids / families do on their own time.

For K - 3rd grade there is no real requirement to do all the activities, however your child will not earn their belt loops or get their badge at the end of the year if they don’t complete the requirements. Some kids don’t care, but some kids get upset when their friends have all the stuff on their uniform and they do not. It’s only in 4th grade and older that the kids must complete the activities to move up to the next level.

While there is nothing stopping you from just coming to a few activities, it’s pretty rude to the rest of the den who are working together as a team and building relationships with each other. It’s not supposed to be a drop-in activity. All the kids in my Weeblo’s den have been together since kindergarten and nearly all of them play a travel sport or multiple rec sports. They manage to work it into their schedules.

[Anonymous]

DS was in Cub Scouts from Tiger (first grade) to AOL (fifth grade). He bridged over with 6 other kids who had started in K or First. One of the boys didn’t join the Den until 4th grade. There were a good number of kids who participated for a couple of years, some moved away and others dropped out for other activities. It was all fine. We had one Scout who only made every third meeting but still bridged.

All of Scouts BSA is what you choose to make of it. The more you participate, the more you get. As a Cub Scout, it is a great opportunity to socialize with other kids while learning about teamwork and developing some basic skills.

One of the reasons Cub Scouts worked for us is that it is a year round activity (there are activities in the summer that you can choose to participate in) and the kids have a chance to socialize during meetings as well as participate in the activities. The activities change every meeting so it is not repetitive. It allows kids to build to something, rank, in a safe way. A Scout can make up activities that they miss with their parents at home.

One note, each Pack/Troop has it’s own identity and runs it’s own way. Some Packs are more active then others. Some are larger then others, you might want to check out a few in your area to see what works best for you. And it is fine to move to a new Pack/Troop.