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?

[Onlyjoinedforthisthread]

Why would you want the brownies do what the cubs are doing? Different children like different things and it's good that brownies offer a different variety activities to cubs, if you daughter prefers the out door things send her to cubs and leave the brownies to those who like it

[strawberrypenguin]

Round here there are loads of girls in the scout group my DS goes too - they've mostly moved across from the local Brownies group where all they did was sit and make 'girly' stuff.

I agree though groups can vary widely depending on the personalities leading it.

[user1498854363]

Op, have you heard about woodcraft folk?

It’s very outdoors, friendship based.

It’s set up similarly in that parents run the sessions, but is child led.

It’s not gender based.

I would move my child if the activity wasn’t working for them

[BikeRunSki]

I am a Cub leader. We are encumbered with paperwork!

I think there is still a bit of s mind set that Rainbows/Brownies/Guides do crafts/home skills etc and Beavers/Cubs/Scouts are more outdoorsy, and attract adult volunteers accordingly. The Guides seem to sometimes have the edge in recruitment because they start Rainbows at age 5, but Beavers don’t start until 6.

Neither The Girl Guide Association or The Scout Association prescribe these traditional activities, but sometimes the images of what the organisations do are hard to shake. Scouting is “youth shaped” ie: led by the interests of the young people.
If your daughter’s Brownie pack doesn’t suit her interests, then move her to Cubs (or if she is nearly 10-10.5 put her on the waiting list for Scouts). Or she could do both - they are not mutually exclusive. If she does give up Brownies, sell her uniform - there are always requests for uniforms on our local FB Pages.

And YY to volunteering. If you want your child to be independent of you, then you can always support your guides/scouts by volunteering with a different age section.

[Hunter037]

If she doesn't like brownies then move her to cubs. She will soon learn not to be shy around boys and its unlikely that she will be the only girl there anyway. Maybe she could find a friend who would like to join too.

I'm a brownie leader and we do some craft activities but other things too. This term we have done an evening about endangered animals, making an obstacle course, a cinema trip, dance competition and charity fundraising. We haven't done anything outdoorsy as we don't have an outside space at our meeting place.

One big issue is budget. If your brownie unit has a low budget and/or not many volunteers then things like tents may just be unavailable. Scouting organisations tend to have central resources whereas many brownie groups are individual, have very little storage space and not enough money for this sort of equipment.

[Scotinoz]

It largely depends on the leader/pack.

I haven't been a leader for 10+ years but when I was, we camped, had museum sleep overs, did a lot of outdoor things etc.

[anniehm]

I did brownies, my brothers did Cubs, Cubs was far more exciting and they got to camp (brownies stayed in a church hall). My girls didn't fancy either as not keen on camping, they did orchestra instead.

[Serin]

I can recommend cadets for when shes older. The army In particular have been brilliant and DS1 has done so much with them, including an annual 2 week summer camp for £60. The uniform is free also.

[MillicentMargaretAmanda]

I can never decide who I get crosser with in these threads - leaders who still run a craft heavy programme or those who spend time bashing the leaders... for what it's worth, the unit I lead had two opportunities to go camping last year and will have two this year. We have big trips to exciting places or events at least once a term and try to do a really varied sweep of activities within the unit, including outdoor stuff, and, god help me, craft. The last two terms have beem focussed on innovation and leadership. Pretty much all units I know are similar to mine and some do many more really great things that I don't have time to offer...

So please can we stop with the general Brownie bashing. Your unit might be a bit lame. I'm sure there are cub groups which are the same. If you want to see changes, come and volunteer with us, it's fabulously rewarding!

[ArmchairTraveller]

Hunter, could you not borrow kit from the cub/scout group? Schedule some meetings at other locations so your group have a chance to do hikes and outdoor activities?

[MillicentMargaretAmanda]

For anyone interested in volunteering
www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer/

[NotSorry]

Scouts are a lot less encumbered by paperwork

Another cub leader here - not sure where PP got that idea from

PP said Cubs are probably not out and about much at moment - we’re not, it’s too dark/and or wet

We manage our budget on a shoestring too

My DD had a wonderful brownie/guiding experience so it really is down to the leaders - becoming a volunteer yourself is great advice. You may switch to Cubs and all they do is play football each week (hopefully not!)

[BookWitch]

Can't believe we are doing this again.

Some brownie/guide packs are rubbish
Some cub/scouts are rubbish

Equally some are good

It depends on the leaders and what the girls want to do.

Nowhere in the rule book does it say Brownies must do crafts while the cubs go camping and other outdoor stuff.

I've been a brownie leader for 10 years. I've taken girls down zip wires, camping, made fires etc.
I've also never the

[Isleepinahedgefund]

I think Girl Guiding really need to emphasise that everyone involved is a volunteer and it's not like a regular club/class you send your kid to. If you want the things you're complaining aren't happening, then get involved and ask the leader how you can support the unit to make it happen.

In our area the Rainbows don't do very much outside the meetings, Brownies do a lot more and the Guides are really active - but a lot of this is to do with the experience of the leaders, the number of regular helpers and the level of parental support in each unit.

[BookWitch]

Sorry posted too soon

I've never thrown anyone out of Brownies. Nor has any brownie leader I know. Which doesn't match up with the thousands of people who claim they were thrown out of Brownies- so I always take that one as a kind of boast that they are one of the cool kids that talk crap

[user1474894224]

@MrsFTigalar and all the other volunteers on this thread. Thank you for giving up your time to help our children. Thank you for committing each and every week. Thank you for the meeting and prep and training you do to support uniformed organisations.

To the OP if you don't like it leave....there are long waiting lists in our area for all these groups. In fact our scouts could open something like 20 more beaver colonies and still have kids on the wait list. The volunteers do their best. Either help them or stop moaning. Sorry if that's blunt but my mum gave up hours and hours of her time for guiding - along with days out, camps, trips away. And they are really really upset, annoyed, gutted, resentful etc etc when parents complain in this way. By all means have a constructive discussion with the leader, offer your support....but a blanket moan helps no one.

[BikeRunSki]

MillicentMargaretAmanda and BookWitch have said everything in my head very well.

[StopMakingAFoolOutofMe]

I'm a Brownie leader and we do all sorts of things including camping, building and lighting fires (and fire safety!), pioneering etc as well as indoor activities. It depends on the pack.

Also to the poster who said they got "kicked out" of Brownies for finding a poo - of course you did

[ArmchairTraveller]

Millicent, there are a lot of girls who love the time they have to socialise, craft, play games, cook and learn about pandas and turtles. For them, many Brownie and Guide troops are an essential female space.
I don’t see the problem, at least girls have a choice denied boys.
Volunteering in an established group with traditional views often changes nothing. Most parents are just trying to find a good fit for their child, and the huffy feather-ruffling responses and unwillingness to look at some issues raised don’t address that.

[user1496259972]

I loved brownies! And guides. But we did tonnes of outdoors stuff in my time including camp fires. I’m looking at becoming a leader now my daughter is of a rainbow age. My aim would be to plan in lots of outdoor practical things (tho I’m not an arts and crafts type person ) Can you maybe get involved and encourage more outdoor stuff?

[Equimum]

I think where cubs and Brownies are running groups close together, it may be helps if the activities on offer are quite different, as it meets the wants of different children.

By all means move your daughter if you think she’d be happier at cubs.

I loved Brownies when I was little, but it was very much as you describe. DS has just started Beavers and it is very different. He’s already been on a night hike (on a cold, dark night), been star gazing and on a trip to a supermarket.

[WombatChocolate]

Yawn. All groups are a bit different. It's all optional. It's all run by volunteers. You can put your DD is any group you choose which has a place. You can get involved and help shape what's offered rather than just moaning.

Next time you're feeling aggrieved about the £2 you've paid not resulting in different activities which fit more with what you expect, just remember those things above. There is no entitlement to Brownie or Cub provision, nor to provision of a certain type. The unappreciated (clearly by Op) volunteers give up lots of time to offer what they are able to and works with the adults, skills and finances and other practicals available at that time in that area. It will be different. One of the good things is that there are often both organisations available and girls often have a choice - so you can choose which suits you best.

I'm shocked at the lack of willingness to do an occasional 'duty' of helping out on an evening or trip, when you know it's all run by volunteers themesleves. Just strikes me that Op is rather unrealistic, demanding and unappreciative!

[Groovee]

I run brownies. We're girl led and the girls chose from the new programme what to do. We try to do a wide and varied programme. Every group is different as it's girl led and leaders all bring different expertises with them.

Had one girl for 3 years who only liked craft and cooking experiences. Regularly would sit with her face tripping her if it wasn't something she liked.

Most others are delighted every week and the feedback is positive. Recently had a complaint from a parent in a neighbouring group claim they only do colley Buckie races. This I know to not be true as I have visited the unit as I am mentoring the Brownie leaders and have seen what they are offering and most of my visits are unannounced.

If your daughter wants to do outdoors things, it would be worth getting her to ask now so the leader can book or organise for the summer term.

[budgiegirl]

Perhaps you could try a different brownie group, if there’s another in your area? Or try cubs on a trial basis. But both both brownies and cubs are ‘youth led’, so activities should generally be chosen by the children themselves - although no doubt there will be input from the leaders too.

Our beaver leader is also a brownie leader - so there tend to be more similarities between the two groups than differences. However, the brownies definitely seem to do less camping, and the beavers do more craft than average I would say.

I’m a cub leader, and we are certainly not out every meeting lighting fires and pitching tents (although we do try to have at least two weekend-long camps each year, plus lots of weekend trips/hikes/sleepovers)

We are encouraged when planning meetings to try to have at least 50% of them outdoors, but this generally will mean summer term is mostly outdoors, with only a couple of outdoor meetings in the winter and spring term.

[Babygrey7]

I so recognise this

My DS was on a waiting list for cubs (scouts) and when he finally got in.it was rubbish.

Then he waited until he was 12 when he could join army cadets, they do fieldcraft, army drills, weapon handling, first aid, poppy selling and camp 4 times a year. He loves it as it is "real" still too much admin and not enough fieldcraft for him, but better than cubs/scouts (which was mainly doing crafts in a hut, whereas he wanted to get cold and wet and muddy )