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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Being thrown out of Brownies isn't something to be proud of

160 replies

Wandaaa · 09/07/2012 22:39

Watching Who wants to be a Millionaire on ITV +1 and contestant has just said whe was thrown out of the Brownies. I hear this often on TV by minor celebrities and it really annoys me.
There got that off my chest.

OP posts:
GlassofRose · 10/07/2012 00:02

I never joined in the first place because even as a small child I was a cynical wee cow and thought it looked like a load of preachy do-good bollocks.

HAHAHA me too

But I did go to Ballet and I was told never to come back in front of the class because I didn't courtesy to the bitch living her failed dreams through children ballet teacher at the end of class.

MrsTerryPratchett · 10/07/2012 00:18

GlassofRose you're so hard you can't even spell curtsey. Grin

TheSpokenNerd · 10/07/2012 00:44

My mate was thrown out because she was WELL too old to be there but didn't want to move up to Young Leaders.

I would be horrified if DD got chucked out though! She's only just joined and LOVES it.

NoComet · 10/07/2012 00:50

DMIL made up an elaborate story about being drummed ceremonially out of the Brownies.

She used it to wind up very irritating future in-laws. (They were so irritating she ended up marrying someone else!)

However, having been a Brown Owl I do not think it's something to be proud of. I'm not sure I believe them. I have only gently suggested that it's time to move up to Guides.

SrirachaGirl · 10/07/2012 00:58

I enjoyed the "my toddler is a twat" thread. Smile.

I was an exemplary Brownie. I didn't know you could be thrown out Shock but now wish I had stood up a teensy bit more to control freak Brown Owl.

I was kicked out of ballet though...for crying. The mistress hated me and complained to my Mum that I didn't have the correct hip-rotation/neck length/wing-span or something equally ridiculous (I was 6).

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 10/07/2012 01:03

Like Ruby, I wasn't allowed in Brownies either. Went for a taster night, I had a great time, but my Mum was told that they didn't think Brownies would suit me.

If I don't choose to take pride in it, I am left with a choice of shame that even at 8 I didn't fit in, or anger that some cow in a brown dress thought she could judge a child accurately after an hour an a half and make a child feel like they have done something wrong when they haven't.

I'll stick with being proud.

LapsedPacifist · 10/07/2012 01:54

I was thrown out of Brownies in 1969. For talking in church. I had no idea you weren't allowed to talk in church Hmm - it was the first time I'd ever been and we were the Only Atheists in the Village it wasn't as if I was performing porno-rap either.......

Anyways, it was shite and boring. All that conformist crap sitting round a creepy painted tin mushroom in the middle of a freezing church hall Team Spirit stuff, which no matter how hard I tried, never bloody worked for me. Mum and Gran spent hours making a Brownie Floral Wreath for the Brownie Revels for me to wear, but Brown Owl always managed to make me feel I wasn't right. She took the piss because "My head was too big for a standard size Brownie beret!!!" - Ha bloody Ha - so I had to wear a brown woolly hat instead.

Cow. I was drummed out. Had to hand over my Kelpie tie-pin.

MsFanackerPants · 10/07/2012 02:02

Asked to leave Brownies due to repeated accidentally hoofing of the toadstool and owl. Was glad because I hated the brown dress.

Left Guides because our leader was bonkers and tried to make me eat Spam when we went on camp. And also wouldn't allow us to wash our hair. I note only washed my hair under a cold outdoor tap, but also led a Spam rebellion and told her Spam was no longer required as the war was over. I left of my own accord after coming home from camp.

Papyrus · 10/07/2012 02:05

I was kicked out of ballet - for being too imaginative Confused. All I wanted to do was twirl and prance round the room. The teacher wanted me to learn to point my toes correctly. My mum and the teacher decided that ballet was probably not my forte and I spent my Saturday mornings twirling round the living room at home instead. I was four.

lurkedtoolong · 10/07/2012 07:18

I left Brownies because the Brown Owl wouldn't let me do the reading badge. The only one we were allowed to do was hostess - not a chance I was giving up reading time to make tea for other people. I'm a brownie leader now and can't imagine what it would take to throw a girl out of the unit...

VivaLeBeaver · 10/07/2012 07:23

I was thrown out of Guides for smoking on guide camp.

BaronessOrczy · 10/07/2012 07:51

I was thrown out of Guides for smoking behind the bike sheds. I had an exemplary Brownie career thatsthewayirememberit although I was chucked out of ballet aged 7 for being too tall - now that's the one that rankles!

I was gutted. Who does that to a seven year old? It's not like I was ever going to be Darcey Bussell, just wanted to twirl, really.

ApolloSmintheus · 10/07/2012 07:55

I was asked I leave ballet class aged 8, because I had "grown the wrong shape". Cheers missus, what a way to kick off a lifetime of body ishoos in a young girl.

I wish I had been kicked out of brownies. I hated it, especially all the religion and that Tawny Owl with her favourites.

I did fail my cycling proficiency though. [proud]

pookamoo · 10/07/2012 07:56

See, as a leader, I have never heard of anyone being actually thrown out.
More likely is that you weren't enjoying it (probably crap leadership) and decided not to go back...
So many people claim to have been thrown out but in 15 years I have never known one person EVER asked to leave.

Although I am sure it could be possible!

pookamoo · 10/07/2012 07:57

Even cling film on the toilet wouldn't be a deal breaker (although I would have fun working out a practical joke in return!) Grin

seeker · 10/07/2012 08:01

Pookamoo- we actually have asked one Scout to leave. But it was for persistently doing things that put himself and others in danger. And we tried very hard for ages to get him to stop doing it. And getting loads of advice and help about how to help him.

Nobody would be asked to leave for any of the reasons listed here. I think people just like the idea of having naughty children!

Groovee · 10/07/2012 08:11

As a Brownie Guider (who is in charge, just chooses not to be called Brown Owl so am Snowy Owl instead) I'd be gutted if I have to ask a child to leave. We did have to warn a mother that should her outrageous behaviour concerning a local mother who'd suffered a horrific tragedy, continued, we would ask that her daughter would be transferred to a group nearer her home as she travelled 20 minutes to us and there were units closer. The mother soon shushed.

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 10/07/2012 08:13

My mum was asked not to bring me to Brownies any more - I had to be dragged there anyway, she felt I should go because she had enjoyed brownies as a child, and because, having moved into a small village when I was 7 and decided to send me to a school miles away when every other child in the village went to the village school, she felt being sent to brownies once a week with girls who, without exception, had already known each other for years, would magically integrate me. The girls thought I must be "a snob" because I didn't go to their school, the Tawny owl probably thought the same of my mother, and was related to several of the other girls, and I was a strong willed brat girl unwilling to tow the line and say I loved things I hated, so I don't think I was really a pleasure to have there! I can't really think of anything I enjoyed there, though I might have liked camping if that pack had done that, and if I'd actually had friends there!

The final straw was when the brownie pack was going to do a concert and I was told to introduce a song with the line "This is our favourite song, we hope yu love it as much as we do" and it was one I especially hated - I refused to say it and the leader told me "That's it, I've never met a brownie like you" and I told her she hadn't met many then, so she asked my mother at the end of the session not to bring me back.

I was rejoicing til she got in touch with the guide leader to see if I could join early Hmm she got me in but that was very short lived, though I forget how that ended!

Fleurdebleurgh · 10/07/2012 08:14

I was thrown out of Brownies for saying embroidery was 'lame' and thrown out of The Girls Brigade for telling the leader (captain?) to 'bugger off'.

Im now a Cub scout leader and would think both were hilarious.

Coconutty · 10/07/2012 08:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AmberLeaf · 10/07/2012 08:24

My mum was told that 'it would be best if xxxxx didn't return' I don't fully remember why but it may have been linked to me pushing a girl in the toilets because she kept whispering to me that she was going to beat me up. She was older too.

Mrsjay · 10/07/2012 08:25
FallenCaryatid · 10/07/2012 08:30

'See, as a leader, I have never heard of anyone being actually thrown out'

I was told to leave after a fight. That was before I learned that there were other ways of dealing with bullies ganging up on someone, but the girls were vile and the victim was my friend, so I hammered them and was booted out.

seeker · 10/07/2012 08:31

"was thrown out of Brownies for saying embroidery was 'lame"

There will have been more to it than this. Trust me.

This is like all those teenagers we hear about on mumsnet who got detention "and all I did was ask to go to the toilet- honestly" or "it wasn't my fault- all I was only a couple of minutes late" "I was only telling Ben what the next lesson was"

glastocat · 10/07/2012 08:33

Heh, I refused to join because I wouldn't swear allegiance to the queen, and all the religious stuff didn't appeal. All my mates went to the Girls brigade instead, which I think was the Protestant paramilitary version. They had to go to church every Sunday, and as my family were jw I was barred from there anyway.