AIBU to think my DD should have more Brownies badges by now?

[UndertheCedartree]

My DD joined Brownies when she was 7 and a half. She was there 6 months before Lockdown. Brownies continued online on Zoom but she didn't get on with that. So she only started back in September when they started meetings again. She is 9 and a half now. So to be fair she's not been there that much over the 2 years.

I'm not sure exactly when she would leave Brownies but I think at 10 or 10 and a half. She is therefore keen to get her Gold Award which is the top badge a Brownie can get. We went through all the badges she has and she only had Communication as the only badge that counts towards the Gold Award. I thought she should have more by now?

Just to be clear this is not a dig in any way at the fantastic leaders that run Brownies. I am eternally grateful for these volunteers giving up their own time to run an amazing group and making it really affordable for me. My DD has just come back from Pack holiday (where she got the Communication badge) and she loved it so much. It was a lovely experience for her with clearly so much work having gone in to running it.

Do you think it possible she has just missed being given the badges? Any advice from Guiding insiders would be welcome!

In our unit they do interest badges at home bit all skills builders at unit.
Maybe ask the leader if she missed any bits. Our leader will send out the missed parts for them to catch up.

When DS was in Cubs and Scouts it seemed to vary a lot between groups. Some seemed to push the kids through multiple badges as you'd see kids from certain groups at area events and even the younger kids had more badges than kids from our group. DS enjoyed the activities at his group, it was just much less badge orientated. You could look into a different group for guides if yours isn't a good fit?

I had to do at home nearly fifty years ago now. Sounds like they have gone back to how it used to run.

She doesn’t need the Gold to move on to Guides, if that was a concern.

Sounds like she’s not been there enough to have finished many badges, and some units don’t bother with them much and are all about the fun.

My kids have run the full gauntlet from Rainbows/Beavers to Rangers/Explorers and are now Junior Leaders. Different units varied hugely on how badge-focused they were. Like you, I think the world of our volunteers; they’re amazing.

You have to do the interest badges at home.

The UMA goes towards the skills builders. The small hexagonal badge.

Once you have the right amount of minutes in a theme, and the interest badge in the same theme you get the theme award.

Communication badge isn’t part of this.

My DD did the zoom meetings and gained her UMA’s through that.

We also worked on the interest badges. To get Gold you have to have Bronze and Silver first.

My DD has done at least one interest badge in each theme.

You need all themes and skills builders to gain Gold. Plus a few extra challenges at the end.

Good luck

Brownies should be doing the badges in their own time.

I hate the new programme with a passion and before covid I was getting disillusioned with it. Menopause hasn't helped either. I've got no enthusiasm or motivation for it and regrettably I will be handing in my notice come the New Year.

@TroysMammy

Brownies should be doing the badges in their own time.

I hate the new programme with a passion and before covid I was getting disillusioned with it. Menopause hasn't helped either. I've got no enthusiasm or motivation for it and regrettably I will be handing in my notice come the New Year.

You're not alone. The new programme seems to have stripped the fun out of guiding, not to mention increased the workload for leaders. I know a lot of leaders who didn't go back after lockdown, and many of those who did are now considering their future in guiding, especially with the subs going up so dramtically in the next few years.

My DD only started brownies about a month ago and so far there's been no mention of badges. I had no idea she should be doing things for them at home so this thread has been really useful. So far, she's told me they do games and arts and crafts, they've had a Halloween party and they're going to be doing a Christmas play. I'll have to look into the badges she can do at home and see what she wants to have a go at.

My daughter was part of two brownie packs. The first one she joined was smaller with volunteers who were not particularly experienced in leading the group. Consequently, they did a lot of activities but not much work on badges, not many trips or anything like that. That group had to close when there weren't enough adults to run it.
She then was offered a place at a much bigger unit where the leaders had been there for years and were much more clued up. She came home with badges regularly (too regularly for me, tbh!)

Others are right that a lot of girls do badges at home, but I think a lot of it depends on the group dynamics.

Can anyone tell me why the subs will be going up so dramatically? I’ve had a email from our unit to say that Feb 2022 they will be very much higher. As I see it the subs have been increasing for a while now. No apparent reason behind it?

@DobbyTheHouseElk

Can anyone tell me why the subs will be going up so dramatically? I’ve had a email from our unit to say that Feb 2022 they will be very much higher. As I see it the subs have been increasing for a while now. No apparent reason behind it?

I believe it's to try and make up for the shortfall due to Covid-19 lockdowns and lack of fundraising. Although this could be completely wrong.

But it had increased prior to covid. Our unit had to ask for a grant from a local organisation for the 2020 census payment. They were awarded £250 to help to pay for the increased amount.

My DDs went through Brownies and got a few badges each term - they really enjoyed it and did the occasional (maybe 1-2 a year) at home too. No one I know whose DDs go to Brownies has got anywhere near the Gold Award, but the Bronze is very do-able with some work at home. I think it varies a lot from pack to pack, some are very badge focussed, others do more other things. I would explain to your DD that it's perfectly normal to leave Brownies without a Gold badge (or even a Silver or Bronze), to reassure her she's not missing out.

@DobbyTheHouseElk The 2020 accounts show that HQ lost £5m in income in 2020 due to the pandemic - closure of activity centres, fundraising opportunities etc. The amount that individual units have to pay to HQ per girl in Feb is going up so many units are having to raise their subs to cover this increase. My unit has also had a rent increase as the charity we rent our hall from has also lost income so increased costs all round. Fundamentally, brownies is still great value compared to other after school clubs and there are funds and grants that can be applied for to help ensure that no girl misses out due to cost if needed.

I think you do more in Guides but my niece also got almost all the brownie badges (minus 2 I think).My niece has a shit ton of guide badges too! She will be 14 in less than a week and she has had be final guides meeting - doesn’t time travel fast!!!
I will try to dig out some old photos of her jackets to show you.

@TeenMinusTests

From the outside, the system these days seems (unnecessarily) complex and structured. Doesn't it suck a lot of the joy and spontaneity out of things?

@teenminustests it is structured and took a bit of training to get my head around at first, but it is much easier to run once you get going, especially for inexperienced leaders, as it basically does all the planning for you! It should also help to stop the huge discrepancies between different local units. The programme is only supposed to account for 60% of time, so still lots of time for joyful and spontaneous activities

@Terminallysleepdeprived

The way the new programme works leaders are no longer allowed to do badges in unit time, they have to be done at home.

Some units find ways to manipulate it but others find fitting in the requirements for the new programme hard enough.

The way the new programme works leaders are no longer allowed to do badges in unit time, they have to be done at home

Isn't that really tough for girls who don't come from supportive families? Looking back at my own time in the Brownies, I realise now that the leaders were subtly doing loads to help build the self-esteem of girls who had very tough home lives. If those girls now fall behind because they don't have nice parents like the OP, it seems unfair.

@Whinge nearly every activity involves paper and pens and how you felt doing that activity. Too much like school with recording what you've done. To me Brownies is about learning things you wouldn't at school or these days at home, for example sewing on buttons, identify trees and birds, singing action songs, making useful things. Practical things I learned as a Brownie have stayed with me for over 40 years.

@ftw163532 - I'm not aware of a bronze or silver award. And she's very willing to put the effort in. I"m just trying to figure out how it works.

@ColinTheKoala - unfortunately her dad is not engaged with this type of thing and I've been very unwell. Hopefully now, though I can support her with it.

@PaddingtonStareBare

Ex Brownie Leader here, she can also do a lot of badges herself at home :)

That’s what my niece did in Guides.

@UndertheCedartree
Hi op, there was a change over on badges a couple years back so that’s why there is a mix of different types of badges on guides and may explain why there are more!

@UndertheCedartree

This is the bronze,silver and gold awards x

@GuidingSpirit - thank you for all that information - very helpful. I do wonder if she just wasn't given the skill builder badges she completed in the first 6 months. She has started working on the artist badge but needed materials supplied and a bit of support. She just needs to make frames for her pictures now. I will speak to Brown Owl and find out what award she can realistically aim for and let them know the badge she is working on.

@GuidingSpirit - can you tell me when she would go up to Guides?

I'm a Rainbows leader (ie age group before Brownies).

To gain a Skills Builder badge (for example Feel Good or First Aid), girls have to complete 5 activities (although at the mo it's been reduced to 4 because of covid)

Then to get a theme award (for example Be Well) they have to complete one skills builder (first aid or feel good in this instance) plus 180 unit meeting minute activities (120mins at tho mo) AND one of the 2 linked interest badges at home (in rainbows case this would be healthy mind or feel good).

Some units (like us) do one skills builder per term plus enough meeting minutes activities to complete the theme award if the girl has completed an interest badge at home, so if the girl is there for the full 2 years she'd have a chance at gaining gold. Some units do the skill builder activities across several terms, so are working on several at once, which obviously would mean if she's missed quite a few meetings she'd have partially completed several of the skills builders/ theme awards but not enough to actually complete anything.

Badges are nice, but they're not the be all and end all. It's quite tricky to gain gold, most of mine get bronze or silver.