Talk to me about the girl scouts/boy scouts - Page 2

[PatchyMama]

Originally Posted by flyingspaghettimama

My daughter will be starting Brownies soon, I hope it will be fun. Are parents usually expected to stay (I have a feisty baby too)?

I did 4H when I was a kid, and I think it probably very much depends on your area. In the conservative, rural area I grew up in, the boys did livestock, and the girls, well...we learned how to bake, and sew, and make ojo de dios and other ticky-tacky 70s crafts. I am surprised, and somewhat disappointed, I never learned macrame. It was super horrible. I was homeschooled at the time, but never made any friends there. The leadership was entirely LDS.

I can still remember the smell of that 4H room. Eww.

According to our leader -- siblings are not allowed at meetings (because of insurance) so we are encouraged to drop them off Its such a short meeting (about an hour) that I think we are going to drop her off and then I am just going to take younger DD for a walk while we wait.

[Lyricc]

I was in girl scouts and 4-H.
Brownies (girl scouts): LOVED IT. we did crafts, painted and all sorts of cool stuff.
Girl Scouts: Hated the next level. I wasn't a 'cool" kid, and was very very cliqy.. when anothe girl joined with the same name as me, they all stared calling her by 'our' name, and called me, "hey you". When I told the leaders, they had a very "well, you will need to learn to take care of this yourself, my daughter would NEVER do that... ".. blah.. plus, i was being raised by just my stepfather at the time and he was kinda excluded from planning and supporting things cause he was a man. As well as the fact that our troop just sucked all around, we went roller skating, THATS IT.

4-H- I was in three years, and like raising and showing/selling pigs, did the sewing group, and a cooking group. but, that can also be cliqy.

all in all, i guess it all depends on the kids and leaders.

[pigpokey]

Here in Atlanta, I am pretty sure they have scout troups that are mostly homeschoolers.

I think the best part of scouting is summer camp. You don't have to be a scout to use scout camps (at least in GS) but I do think it is nice for the kids in terms of feeling part of a community/organization to be GS when they are at a GS camp.

In terms of ethics, GS leadership is pretty queer-inclusive to make a huge understatement. BSing is queer hostile.

[mamasi]

I grew up in Girl Scouting. It literally saved my life, I think, in terms of offering me a community outside of home and school. Summer camp was a major focus of my Scouting experience, but troop activities through high school were really fun and I met girls in the troop I probably wouldn't have gotten to know just from school.

A lot of it depends on the quality and enthusiasm of the leader(s).

And yes, the Girl Scouts as compared to the Boy Scouts are much, much more progressive. The Girl Scouts have all kinds of interesting programs, such as troops that bring girls whose mothers are incarcerated into prisons to see their mothers, and programs for girls who are themselves incarcerated.