Cubs trip to church

[Coffeeandme]

Our Cubs leaders have said they are going on a trip to a CofE church which is nearly 7 miles away from our town. Looking at Google maps the church is in the middle of nowhere, will take 15 mins each way for which parents will need to make the trip 4 times total.

Do you think this is ok - virtually an hour’s travelling and 25 miles, for Cubs to spend 1.5 hours at an ordinary CofE church?

We live in a large town with many churches, a mosque and synagogue.

With the CoL and petrol prices I’m surprised that they wouldn’t pick a local church, plus some parents can’t simply stay for the duration at the church as they have other DC or work to do at home.

@cuckyplunt "Either your child commits to something and learns that it is a commitment and that it is important to attend whenever they can, as other people are giving up their time are relying on them to turn up and take part.
Or you teach them that it’s okay to duck out when things get mildly inconvenient"
Presumably you're expecting the OP's son to walk to the Church to show his commitment to Cubs?

I think it's not necessarily unusual for a cubs/scouts event to be 15 minutes away. We definitely have a few spaces that we use in ours that are 15 minutes drive, so this is probably half of all sessions in a term. The others are local to use (village hall, village green, etc.). We just had camp at the weekend as they are now doing an autumn camp and that was an hour drive away. As much as possible, we try to carpool - one will drop off and another will collect. We did that with camp. I drove mine and a friend down on Saturday and the friend's parent collected on Sunday. We live pretty rurally though, so we're used to driving 15-30 minutes to get anywhere.

One of the issues unfortunately I think is that organising all of this is not simple. It's being able to access spaces that are not already booked up, usually in the evening, and requires a kindly volunteer to come open up and lock up and sometimes to facilitate, plus correct insurance and risk assessments in place. It's not always as easy as using the local church or local village hall, especially when those are also largely run by volunteers.

@RoseAndRose what’s with the sarcastic shitty tone of your message? I finished volunteering with Beavers earlier this year for which I did almost 2 years service. I did more than my fair share of helping arrange trips, staying during the camping weekends, supervising children and guiding activities, etc. I might add that around half of parents/carers do anything to dodge their turn on the parent rota which is a never ending source of annoyance to the Leaders.

We have also already visited the local mosque and synagogue. My point is that we live in a large town which has many, many churches. The church the Leader has chose is a bog standard CofE church - it has nothing special about it, hence why could we not have chosen another local church to visit.

I will now bow out of this thread.

I don't see why you're singling me out when others have made the same points.

But I did miss the later part of a subsequent post when you said you had been a Beaver leader, and I am sorry for my inattention. Though I am lightly baffled why you didn't mention it at the outset, plus why a former leader chooses to post on MN rather than just deal with it, for example by finding out what the reason for the trip is (you said none was given, various of us have pointed out possible reasons)

You had not said that mosque and synagogue had already been visited, and I read your previous posts as saying they were also available but not chosen. Hence suggestion that you get on and be the one that makes it happen. As you are so familiar with the movement, then they'd welcome you with open arms.

I don't think that's particularly far or a particularly unreasonable ask.

Obviously it's a shame for your ds, but have you tried asking for a lift from other parents? It's hardly the favour of the century if they are going anyway, and you can reciprocate in other ways if you feel you need to (e.g. have them over to play).

Why not ask your leader to provide a lift. They'll do 2 to 1 in the car with your child. As a youth worker I'd personally chose a visit like this based on the minister not the location. I'd want someone open minded, friendly, who's good with kids and who can make it a genuinely interesting and informative visit. Not all ministers would be equal in that department.

I volunteered with his Beaver group for nearly two years so I know well what it is like planning outings etc

Surely as a former Beaver leader you know how very difficult and time consuming it can be to organise trips and events? Perhaps the church they have chosen to visit is the nearest one that can accommodate a visit at the time you need. 7 miles really isn't that far in the grand scheme of things.

When my cub pack visited the fire station, we visited one that is 5 miles away because the nearest one (that is exactly 2 minutes walk from our scout hut) doesn't do visits for youth groups. We did a day visit last weekend that is a 50 minute drive away because that was the nearest place that could do the activities we wanted to do. It's rarely as simple as 'let's visit the nearest thing'.

I get that it can be difficult if you don't have a car. But I think it's fine to ask for the favour of a lift from another parent, especially if you offer petrol money or can do a lift another time when your DH is around.

It’s not even that. It’s people who don’t drive, make a massive virtue of that often (environmental issues etc) then expect someone else to drive them everywhere.
One small child getting one lift to and from a one off trip wouldn’t be seen like that.

In our cubs a couple of parents would take 4 cubs on a trip each. Drivers never expected reciprocity from non drivers for these trips.