To think that these songs were really bad choices for our Brownie kareoke night?

[1950sHousewife]

Maybe IABU or just a massive mouldy cow.

The younger leaders organised a 'Diva Party' for the Brownies and with kareoke chose 'Hollerback Girl' (clean version, but still, interesting take home message for 7 year olds), Hit Me Baby One More Time and Barbie Girl.

I think I came across as cats bum mouth, as all the girls were having a fab time, but those songs strike me as hugely creepy for little girls to be singing to. I wondered what the parents would think as well.

Would you be happy with these songs?

LOL Queenof - we did the carol singing at the old peoples home, and they had to serve tea and scones to people recently.
Never done the church brass thing though.
And the mushroom has gone out of the window because it alienates some denominations because it has satanic associations!
The sausage cooking still goes on though.

I do feel we should prepare more very dry Victoria sponge cake. That may give me an excuse to be more cats bum.

Maybe just save time and ban anything fun or enjoyable. That way children can enjoy their grey clone childhood for longer.

@ Sinister - such an omission on our part! And why didn't I think of Britney's If You Seek Amy.

@Aribura - Interesting. Trying to work out where I said things should be banned.

Grey clone childhood? Perhaps some of us think that kids shouldn't look or act like they're on Toddlers and Tiaras. If that makes my DDs childhood of catching frogs, cycling around the place getting messy and not being judged by her appearance before she has to be a dull one, then I'm thrilled.
Personally, I think it's the kids that dare to stand out and act like kids and not like mini-Gwen Stephanis that are the ones who are the individuals.

There are a million trillion great songs in this world available for girls to sing. How on earth did 'hit me baby one more time' become top of the list? Bizarre. Listen to Fun Radio for good child-friendly songs.

Yeah, I remember all the great songs from Brownies when I was a kid. Like 'Ooh, aah, I lost my bra, I left my knickers in my boyfriend's car' and the one about kissing soldiers and getting beaten for it...

You got beaten at Brownies?

Has anyone mentions "Minipops"?

THAT was inappropriate. Compared to that, Barbie girl is just unfortunate.

SolidGold - major flashback from that one! And also the song about 'Parlez vous and the fart.'
You're right, we did sing songs like that.
Horseto - that's what I thought. There's a list as long as your arm of non-not-fun songs they could have sung.

Oh and talking of Brownies, I asked my friends DD if they still played a certain game and got from her!

I cant remember what it was called but the leader shouted out things to do with being on a ship and you had to do the appropriate mime. It didnt lead to anything, just tiring us out I think!

Scrub the deck (on the floor scrubbing), climb the rigging (running on the spot, arms going like pistons), something to do with the captain (we had to run and stand in a line in front of the leader), hornpipe (do the hornpipe dance), Man over board (cant remember the mime for that!)

Anyone remember this? Anyone....?!

Thank you bogeyface! I remember that one. You're right, it had utterly no purpose whatsoever. I reckon I'll try it out on the girls next week. We've many games along those lines, because remember children, there's no winners or loser, only taking part .

Glad I could help!

Now you need to tell me a) what it was called and b) what the mimes/shout outs were cos it is driving me mental!

I have 6 kids, if I can get this down I can see the summer holidays being ALOT easier :o

It's called 'captain's coming' and our brownies play it most weeks.

You've also got 'bow', 'stern', 'port' and 'starboard' (run in appropriate directions), 'captains daughter' ( curtsey - which I loathe. I want the woman to be the captain, innit), man the lifeboats (get in pairs and row the boat) and loads of other random stuff.

No diva crap on my brownies. We just got back from camp and no one brushed their hair for two days. They all had a great time though. And we sang kookaburra round the fire and cooked our own marshmallows.

( you have to salute and say 'aye aye, captain' btw )

It ain't all rosy. Some loon decided to ask miss freaking Canada to speak at the 'girl greatness' workshop. I nearly choked on my eggy bread.

My dd is just finishing Guides and ds did Cubs/Scouts up to last year. I was amazed at how different they were. The boys did lots of outdoor action orientated stuff, and generally played games when the leaders ran out of more exciting things to do. The girls activities were just much more sedate, and their 'ordinary' meetings tend to be either crafty or involve singing or skits. They do do positive girl power type things too, and both groups did similar amount of camps (the main difference being the safety forms that Guides seems much keener on) but it's been a bit disappointing really.

Next year they are both going to Cadets, which is mixed.

My dd liked rubbishy songs when she was smaller, and at 7 almost certainly was belting out Barbie Girl but it would have been nice if the young leaders had chosen slightly less iffy tracks. I get the impression that lots of people really don't listen much to lyrics (but I probably do far too much!)

Ours was a church hall with weird stinky toilets, that you had to go through a dark corridor to get through past the unlocked front door. Gave us all the willies and looking back was a perverts dream, there is no way parents would allow that door to stay unlocked now!

Ladders is also good for knackering out small children, but someone always trips over/ stomps on someone's legs. Worth it though. Noisy...

I forgot the whole "port" "starboard" thing until you mentioned it! I dont think we called it Captains Coming, but that is probably a regional thing, it probably has a hundred different names.

So, what happens with "Man Overboard"? I just remember alot of screaming!

Do you still play Murder, with the winking?

Ladders was banned in our local area when I was there Mad (so thirtymumble years ago) because a girl broke her leg :( loved that game!

There was also one that was like Duck Duck Goose, but the words were "duh duh duh duh duh and this is what I told her duh duh duh duh ,,,,YOU" and then the person going around the outside had to run back to the spot before YOU. Or something... :o

I'm not sure we use 'man overboard'... Is it just swimming movements and screaming?

Lol at safety forms... I had to resubmit my goddamned forms for camp about a gazillion times as apparently I hadn't thought sufficiently about predatory animal attacks. (I should clarify that there is the outside chance that we might stumble across a bear if it was congenitally deaf, but the chances of surprising any wildlife with 20 brownies shrieking at the top of their lungs is minimal)

We are also only (theoretically) allowed to play captain's coming if we don't use the walls as the 'bow' etc. we are supposed to have a line at least x feet in front f the wall where they stop.... Presumably they have had a number of small children not stopping in time.

I like fruit salad. Choose three or four fruits and sit them in a circle. go round and give them each a fruit. When you shout their fruit, they have to run round the outside and sit back in their place - last banana is out etc. When you shout 'fruit salad' they all have to get up and run round...

I am a big fan of games that make children tired...

We played capture the flag with the brownies at camp.

Barbie girl my arse.

Barbie girl my arse.
:o

And thanks for the fruit salad idea, thats great!

Must go to bed now. I keep convincing myself I am working, but I'm not.....

I was a cadet, nooka. we smoked tea bags and it was a great opportunity to hook up with the opposite sex... didn't do me any harm. 16 years in the military gave me a great basis to run the brownies... I mentioned that to a mum the other night and she looked incredulous. Presumably brownie leaders are supposed to be mumsy and caring, not have a background as a trained killer.... . I may not get invited back next year...

I'd have thought it was ideal! dd has played duck duck goose. Her group seem to do quite a bit of the traditional word games and stuff - ds's cub/scout group was basically a bunch of dads who liked to do outdoor stuff - the group was really just a good excuse!

I'm looking forward to them doing a mixed group as it's just one load of driving them about (plus cadets is free so that's cool), I'm quite happy with the hooking up and fairly OK with the idea of doing dumb things like smoking tea bags too

That Port & Starboard game was called Port & Starboard at our Brownies (but that was about 100 years ago!)Man Overboard involved one Brownie picking up another as if they were about to throw them overboard, if there was one Brownie left who was not being picked up or picking up then they were out.

My DD plays wink murder at Brownies. They sing songs such as 'When I First Came to this Land', 'All of us are Red Men, Feathers in our Head Men, Pow Wow' & 'Yellow Submarine'. No Diva parties here.

Man overboard you lie on your back and stick your right leg and left arm in the air, surely? (Why? I dunno!)

TBH OP I think your problem started with Diva Party. Even if it had been a Disco party that would have been better and just less stereotypically shit.