My son came home with a flyer for the boy scouts. He was very excited and couldn't wait to show me. He said "I am really excited for this, Mama." How can you say no to that? I haven't been thrilled with the boy scouts, but how do I explain that they do not like gay people or atheists to a six year old? I certainly do not want my son discriminating or being discriminated against.
What do I do?
Also, he has told me that they only do boy things at boy scouts. I tried explaining that girls can do anything boys can do and vise versa. We ended up agreeing to disagreeing with him asking that we don't talk about it any more. I certainly do not want some organization reaffirming that boys cannot do girl things.
What do I do?
I'm going to look around and see if there are any other clubs he can join, maybe at the boys and girls club or 4H? Do they have 4H anymore? I'll have to look into it.
Oh Raine, I wish you would reconsider and give Scouts a try before judging based on media hype. Cub Scouts are 1st - 5th graders and is very much a family activity. The success of a Pack is dependent on the families involved. We were very fortunate to have a wonderful group of families. Boy Scouts are 6th grade- 17 years of age. With Boy Scouts, boys are introduced to wide variety of activities what they may not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in. They learn everything from Life Saving to Wilderness Survival to Personal Finance Management to Cooking and Sewing to Flying and much more. Never has my son been told he can't do girl things! Most important Scouts teaches self reliance and leadership. This past summer my son, a rising 11th grader, was in charge of 50 scouts at camp, most rising 6th graders- rising 9th graders. There was one young scout who was extremely home sick who consumed most of my sons time, he even spoke to the Mom of the young scout several times on the phone. By the end of the week the young scout was having a great time and my son was no longer having to sleep on the ground next to the young scouts bunk. They both left camp extremely proud of the themselves; the young scout for making it through the week and having fun, and my son for insuring that no scouts went home early. This was an experience that will stay with both of them for the rest of their lives and an experience that they would not have had anywhere else. Scouting is not for everyone. It is a lot of work and not "cool" for high school boys. Most that stay with it see past their friends that aren't involved with Scouts to the big positive influence Scouts will have in the rest of their lives.
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