Talk me through this - male on placement with brownies

[nevernotstruggling]

The dds have been to the same brownie unit for around 4 years (dd1 waiting to move up to guides). I know the leaders quite well and there has been one staff changeover in that time. The communication with parents has been excellent. I have felt safe letting the dds go on sleepovers knowing that I know all the adults involved. It's actually been brilliant in terms of safeguarding. No surprises or anything parents haven't been informed of. The dds love it. Dd2 is thriving there because it's a small closed group where she feels safe and familiar.

I dropped the dds off this week and a man came up to dd1 touches her shoulder and said 'you're it' I said to brown owl - who is that?? She replied oh it's Dave (not his name obvs). Me - who is Dave??? BO - he's on work placement (something about youth work) . Me - Er is he DBS checked?? BO- yes. Me- Brownies is a girls group!! BO - we have dads helping! No they don't. Not once the whole time we have attended.

Apparently Dave will be there for 4 weeks.

My reaction has been negative. I'm quite annoyed there was no warning of Dave jointing the unit. There have never been 'work placements' before. I think it was be something to do with the church though.

I think parents should have been told. They use a private Facebook group to keep in touch with parents and this works really well so I'm a bit baffled by the surprise!

Cotton wool! Get your cotton wool here...

Dave's on a work placement ( youth work).
He has been checked out.
Dave is probably peeved he drew the short straw and ended up at Brownies.
He probably goes home and worries about parents like you.

I wouldn’t like it

Maybe he cares about girls and their futures and wants to help them become tomorrow’s CEOs using his male privilege.

I wouldn’t like it either. Brownies is girls only and it changes the dynamic even if Dave is perfectly lovely.

Jeeze, are you the sort of parent who complains about male teachers in primary schools?

My daughter is now 34 and her dad helped out at rainbows, brownies, guides, nursery and school, what’s your problem?

If they go on a residential (which sound unlikely as he is only there a few weeks) males have to have separate sleeping and bathroom facilities to all female member.

Playing devil's advocat, but what if he identifies as female?

I couldn't get worked up about it if it was just a work experience for a few weeks.

Im not sure why DBS checks mean so much to everyone.

If your main objection is that parents weren't told in advance ... what difference would this actually have made to you? Would you feel the same about a female work experience person?

Tbh it would make me a bit uncomfortable too - I’d question why Dave wants to be there

HE'S TRAINING TO BE A YOUTH WORKER. This is his JOB. He's doing perfectly valid and relevant work experience.

Brownies was not set up to be a protected single sex space. Nor do parents get to approve volunteers or be notified if one happens to be male. He's trained, he's DBSed, he's only there for a few weeks, it's a complete non-issue.

What is the problem though? I’m confused? Don’t you like them having volunteers?

Be careful that your daughter doesn’t catch ‘man’. HTH

Maybe he cares about girls and their futures

And also, I’m sure he isn’t there specifically because they are little girls. He probably just enjoys working with children

Unbelievable!!

I thought GG etc was supposed to be female only so not sure I'd be impressed.

So much deliberate misunderstanding on this thread.

Anyway I was hoping for some clarity around whether youth work placements are commonplace at brownies?

You can be an adult member regardless of whether you are a man or a woman. What you can't do if you're a man is make your promise.

This demonising of men is getting pretty horrible. Parents of Brownies now should be warned told if a man is going to be around? That's really disturbing thinking, imo.

Why does it matter if youth work placements are commonplace? Your brownie unit can take on a new volunteer (male or female) at any time.

This is ludicrous

@nevernotstruggling but you seem to be emphasising on the fact they are male?

@RedskyAtnight because I can't find any information about it. Only the volunteering route - this isn't that

Why didn't you start a thread asking that rather different question then OP?

You really can't expect to ask "what's the capital of Italy" and then when everyone says "Rome" go off on one because you meant Spain.

You know as well as we all do that a) you're a paedonoic (despite statistics suggesting Dad is a more likely contender than Dave b) you emphasise a lot about knowing the leaders so you're also miffed they didn't ask your permission.

You are going to be a bleedin nightmare as your kids get older.

I'm quite annoyed there was no warning of Dave jointing the unit.

What do you expect this 'warning' to say? What do you think parents needed warning about?

Seriously, the more I think about it, the worse this gets. It's insane.