Brownies, a waste of time!

[Growuppeople]

My daughter has been with brownies over a year, they have been on one overnight trip. My DD wants to do scouts but she’s so shy around boys. She wants to do camping, building campfires, adventures! Not knitting or art and crafts! I pay nearly £50 for uniforms, £10 for the “new book” and now I have to go bowling with them. I thought they would learn independence, health and safety among other important life skills. Am I wrong in thinking I’m wasting mine and my daughters time, she is learning absolutely nothing, or is she just with a rubbish group? What do all your brownies do?

MrsFTigalar
We did. It was exhausting and we were using Binka and we'd got quite a few parents in to help out too. Firelighting is so much easier.

but who on earth is brave (mad?) enough to do sewing with Brownies?

We did it with cubs (although I roped in enough parents to have an adult sitting with each table of cubs). The cubs concentration was amazing, and it was the quietest they’ve ever been!

Waves back to @BookWitch and all the other guiders

I did sewing with cubs too. Small project, an adult per patrol. And everything bagged up in advance for each table (thread, ribbon lengths, felt shapes, decorative elements).

But we also had a really really good session with very quiet and engaged Cubs.

And one where the older girls (all Patrol a Leaders) who knew what to do enjoyed doing fancy versions but also helped the others in their patrols quite a bit so that was nice for them too.

And the boys in particular were so proud of their end results!!

Definitely though an activity for every 2nd or 3rd year, and to have plenty of adult volunteers involved!

It was the same 15 years ago when I was a brownie😂 we made cards, did 'popstar' badges and dancing in the hall. The only time we got to have an adventure was the one time we went kayaking.

Always thought it was pathetic, especially when DP tells me the great things he did as a scout and I did glueing and sticking for 3 years.

Prism have you RTFT and do you know that Brownies are younger?

My dd is at scouts. Plenty of girls there. I’d say at least 30%.

I joined Cubs after being asked to leave Brownies at 9. I didn't go on a single camp with Brownies, we mostly did craft and games (non-boisterous) in the hut. This was in the early nineties. I absolutely loved Cubs, we played fun, energetic games, and did a variety of activities. We went on several camps, hiked, played games in the woods and so on.

My dc is now in Scouts, having started in Scouting at 6. He has been camping with Cubs since he was 7. Both the Cubs and Scouts at his group do night hikes in the winter, alongside activities in the hut, so the cold and dark do not stop them.

havent read the whole thread but how about Cadets? They do loads of cool stuff and learn about leadership, discipline, team challenges etc

God I remember to get a badge from brownies I had to wrap a book. It was so boring. I left.

40 years i climate event with guide and scouts I’ve got. Never heard of anyone being kicked out or even asked to leave.
I have had rhe occasional child whose parents didn’t think the rules applied to them who decided not to come back. The one who refused to wear a life jacket for kayaking springs to mind.

Auto correct hates me. Climate event obviously means involvement!

Bertrand, I hate to be tiresome, but I WAS asked to leave Brownies when I was 8. I told Brown Owl to fuck off (she was new, and had told a 12yo girl with Downs Syndrome that she had to move up to Guides, even though we were all very happy including her, her mother was a volunteer and her sister was a Brownie). I was a very angry and unhappy child and it was already obvious that I didn't fit it.

You may have 40 years' experience, but that's still a tiny drop of anecdata in the sea of history of guiding in this country - surely you can't believe EVERYONE is lying?!

I think some people think there’s some kind of kudos in saying they were thrown out - ooh what rebels we were at 10 years old with the dusty musty Brownie or Cub leaders.

What sometimes happened was the girl/boy was told off by leader, didn’t like it and chose not to return and then interpreted events as being thrown out. Or their parents were spoken to about behaviour and then there was no return, with a similar interpretation.

Did anyone ever really have Brown Owl say ‘I’m so sorry Mrs X, but little Xs behaviour is so awful and beyond our ability to cope that we need you to withdraw them’. There may well have been and still are some whose behaviour is extremely challenging, but the leaders soldier on.

BertrandRussell I was a child with yet to be diagnosed SEN. If anything, I relied on rules and routines, though still got it wrong. I had far fewer issues at Cubs than Brownies, so my parents being asked to take me out was a blessing in disguise.

Did anyone ever really have Brown Owl say ‘I’m so sorry Mrs X, but little Xs behaviour is so awful and beyond our ability to cope that we need you to withdraw them’
Yes.

BertrandRussell, I don’t need to check back in the thread - I’ve been a member of the scouting organisation for over 30 years .

I just find it interesting that boys are normally to be avoided at all costs on here but Scouts is sooooo much fun that we’ll just ignore that when it suits.

Applauding Stitchingmoss

I was a Brownie Leader for 3 years. We would always rather be out and about than stuck in a hall with 30 7-10 year-olds on a wet and dark evening. We did weekend camps, trips to the vets etc, but the girls did also like crafts, pamper evenings etc too.

Can you suggest to the leader some of the activities your DD would like to do? If you have a look through the badge book all the activities your DD would like to do should be in there.

Sounds like perhaps the leaders are struggling. How many leaders and Brownies are there? For some activities including trips away overnight the ratios are 1:6 so often it isn't possible to run them without some support from parents. It's also a huge time commitment on the part of the leaders.

In many regions there are simply not enough volunteers to meet the demand from girls wanting to join Girlguiding. If this is the case in your DD's unit my suggestion would be for parents to make a rota to lend a hand so the more adventurous activities become easier to run. If there are 24 Brownies then you'd only be helping out once or twice a year.