To put dd's names down for Scouts - DH thinks they are a "psuedo militaristic organisation that pledges allegiance to the monarchy and reinforces class divisions."

[morningpaper]

Well I thought that the Brownies and Scouts were okay but DH has objected that I have put their names down because they are "psuedo militaristic organisations that pledges allegiance to the monarchy and reinforces class divisions."

I told him they are probably full of working class Muslim eco-warrier children but he says no.

AIBU?

Lol- My DP says exactly the same thing. AND he hates the woodcraft folk because it's "full of bloody hippies".

He keeps threatening to set up his own kids group, with practical skills, outdoor time, socialisation, community etc but no spiritual/religious/military/monarchy links.

Until then I think our DDs are going to go to guides/scouts :~D

Surely it is down to DD, does she want to join? No one is asking DH if he wants to join or be a leader! I never understand why a parent makes up their mind about something and the DC is supposed to jump to attention and agree!
I think that the scouts are wonderful. Very few youth organisations give life skills and responsibily at such a young age, for such a low cost. Having been a Beaver Leader and knowing a lot of cub/scout leaders I can tell you that they have no ulterior motives, other than wanting to put something back into the community and help ypoung people.

If your DH is going to knock it and refuse to let her join I would suggest that he gets off his backside and runs his own youth group!! People who criticise very rarely do anything themselves.
He can easily get CRB checked-hire a hall and run a youth group. I would tell him that you will take her name off the waiting list if he puts his money where his mouth is!

I love the idea of woodcraft folk, but (apart from DP being convinced they are somehow connected with forest school camps, which he has a problem with due to having a run in once on a camp of theirs he was helping out on) they don't exist near enough to me (nearest seems to be durham which is an hour bus ride away).

Also a bit worried by the fact that my kids will be mixing with a lot of...er...well..hippies basically as they will be home educated and so on, and I think they need to have at least some time mixing with "normal" kids.

How weird Butterpie! All sorts of people HE and some are as far from 'hippy' as you can get. HEed DCs are perfectly normal! Are you saying that only DCs who go to school are normal?! HE is nothing more or less than a choice in education. The Scouts etc are good because the DCs come from different schools and some are HEed and you can't actually tell the difference! The only reason that the OP is right about class divisions is that when they started it was a wonderful way for the poor to get out into the countryside but now the waiting lists are dominated by the middle classes.

I agree with pisces about something involving HE.

Don't think "normal" was a good word to use even if you did stick it in "".

And I'm not a hippy.

I have to say that I love the sound of forest schools where the DCs are out in nature, whatever the weather-rather like the scouts. Being on Dartmoor in the rain is good for any 15yr old!

I have had my say about HE-so much so that I have resolved never to read a thread again, but never once have I suggested they are hippies . They have a huge cross section of the population.

Not that I have anything against hippies-my DSs think that I have a hippy tendency myself!

I'm a Pagan anti-monarchist working-class stock (I was chucked out of Brownies for 'subversive and non-Brownie behaviour). But if DS wants to go to cubs/scouts when he's a bit older I'd be happy for him to go.

BTW - he's 5 in November. Is there anything he could join at that age?

My DS goes because it is fun and they do interesting stuff. It is a modern group, run by men and women with a good mix of girls and boys.

I did share your DH's reaction to the prospect initially but, to be honest, my heathenistic, republican counter-indoctrination of DS has worked a treat.

He crosses his fingers when he takes any kind of pledge. Stares at the ceiling during the ritual saluting of the flag and still thinks the guillotine was a rather nifty invention for certain people.

Exactly Riven! The leaders give up their time free and it isn't just the meeting. To do a fun evening takes a lot of preparation and planning. They also do extras at weekends etc. This is why I see red when someone like OP's DH starts being critical!

Beavers at 6 I think Iklboo.

They can join 3 months before their 6th birthday. [is waiting impatiently]

Hippies was probably the wrong word to use, and I am including us in that word (DP would go mad!) I suppose I mean that there is a much higher amount of alternative lifestyle choices amongst HE families (I have met my local ones, they are all lovely, but a much higher percentage of them are vegans/activists/artists/off grid/attachement parents/radical whatevers/lefties/academics etc than in schooled familes) and while I think that is a massive plus for HE, and I know not every HE family is like that, I do think that my kids need to spend some time where the majority of children are a bit more mainstream, just to give them some perspective.

I am probably being really bad at expressing myself here again, but a lot of this is coming from my family being very against HE and wanted to be reassured that I'm not going to be cutting the children off from the world (anyone who knows anything about HE knows that isn't the case, but being able to point to a nice, "normal" organised activity like rainbows or whatever would help convince them!)

That is what is so nice about it, Riven-they don't exclude-or at least not in my area.
They don't talk about 'normal' children-whatever breed a 'normal' DC is supposed to be.
OP's DH should go to a meeting.
It has to be good, at 15yrs old my DS was getting his patrol to cook a 3 course Turkish meal-I bet some of the parent's of the 10yr olds still thought that they were being adventurous letting their DC boil a kettle! He was also camping on Dartmoor at 15yrs without a leader-they could be contacted, but they were not directly supervised. Very few youth organisations,sadly, give a sense of adventure and responsibility.

I'm not keen on labelling anyone. The parent may be a leftie,attachment parenting, vegan, artist, but their DC may well turn out to be a right wing,fulltime childcare user, meat eating, accountant when they grow up!

I wouldn't worry-let your DC choose what to do and who to mix with when the time comes.
As in the case of OP-the only important thing is whether the DD wants to join or not.

Wow, really loving the Greensleeves rants

Oh, and I definitely meant "normal" as in lifestyle, I didn't even think of disabilities or such coming into it- sorry.

I know HE is a choice in education, but I would put money on there being very very few children in this area that do anything at all other than go to the nearest school. It isn't like the local kids go all over the place, some to private, some to HE, some to each of the schools in the area. My children are already unusual in not going to the school at the end of the road, but I do want that to just be a choice in education, hence why I want them to spend at least some time mixing with the kids that do go to the school.

This is what I think is a major benefit of the uniformed clubs- they cross all bariiers.

I know what you mean Butterpie, in this area there's a strong overlap between woodcraft, home ed, forest school, Steiner school circles, and I do sometimes think it's a bit, well, hopeful for those home edding parents to send their children to woodcraft folk to meet the mainstream.

meanwhile my mainstream educated children love woodcraft folk partly because it's full of all the woffly lentil weaving hippies. at school we're the leftie oddballs but at woodcraft folk we're the voice of conventionality .

so yes if you home ed and live in hippy circles then brownies gives you the mainstream cultural experience, if you go to mainstream school then woodcraft folk gives you the hippy leftie experience.

Thanks Fennel, you put it better than me :D