What level of adventure do you think is acceptable?

[BearGryllsDad]

Have name changed for this so not identifiable...

Now its the summer, dh has some time off (teacher) whilst I still have to work. He is therefore doing a lot more of the childcare.

To be fair to him, he is quite engaged with the DC, but takes them on what I would describe as "bear grylls style adventurers" outdoors that involve a fair bit of challenge. Think mountain biking, road riding, canoeing, water stuff, fishing on a fishing boat. They are still quite young (both primary). He takes precautions such as helmets and life jackets of course.

AIBU to worry when he's out with them? They seem to love the adventure generally and I get that it's great for their development. But AIBU just wanting him to take them to a museum or something, just once!?

It sounds like your dc are having an awesome summer. YABU.

I have to take issue with this though ....

but to be honest it was a pretty lame pack as they only did outdoor stuff about once a year, blaming covid.

COVID did put massive restriction on what Scouts could do. Well what everyone could do, but more so in organising to take groups of dc to do things. Why would you call a group "lame" for following the regulations and trying to keep people safe ?

I get where you're coming from, as I suffer from anxiety with my kids and it's shit ( even do now they're teenagers 😭😂 )
As long as they're having fun, he's risk assessing and perfectly able and actively looking after them, I'd swallow my over thinking and busy myself for the day to take my mind off it! 😁

Surely covid would have put more restrictions on inside stuff than outside stuff? My daughter's scouts were outside entirely during covid time as that was the only way they were allowed to keep running.

@Natsku at the start of the pandemic in England scouting had to stop immediately. You were then allowed to do activities over zoom and then gradually allowed back, outside at first and then inside. But were restricted in numbers and also distance you had to be from other scouts, not sharing equipment etc, so made running certain activities quite difficult even outside ones

In today’s world where so many children are overweight and obsessed with screens I’d say your DH is doing a fab job. Anecdotally , my brothers and I went swimming in rivers and the sea, took boats out , built camps and fires and scaled trees at this age and avoided doing anything super daft as teens because we’d learnt the art of risk assessment and understood things like tides, and height safety . As an adult who’s reclusive and not much of a people person these days my 5yr old son enjoys fabulous adventures in the wild over busy places and it suits me!

Ok. I don't think they had strict restrictions on distance outside for scouts where we are so it wasn't so difficult, once the first part of the pandemic was over (when it was zoom only here too), and they didn't do complicated activities involving lots of equipment, mostly stuff like hikes and knife skills (everyone has their own knife anyway so no need to share) and nature stuff.

Yes they did. Scouts were working under National regulations. All Scouts had to follow the regulations, and were following NYA regulations rather than schools.
They then had to produce COVID Risk Assessments on top of the usual Risk Assessments.
Yes, some Groups got going quicker than others - remember all Volunteers were in different circumstances themselves - maybe trying to work at home whilst homeschooling their own dc / looking after vulnerable family members / working on the front line / or other circumstances which made it difficult to then completely adapt to a whole new way of working, many of whom might not have felt comfortable with.
Then, 'being outside' isn't always as straightforward as that. If you have outside space at your usual meeting place, you still have to think about toilets If meeting elsewhere then you have to think about transport, and increased ratios - particularly at a time when some Leaders might not have been able to meet due to their own vulnerability or that of other family members or due to their work.

It is not "lame" to not be able to suddenly produce additional Leaders, plus the time to prepare differently, plus writing all the Risk Assessments, plus providing the extra sanitising that was needed....especially during the months when advice was changing regularly and you could plan things then find the rules had changed again.

Out of interest, did you volunteer ?

Yes not blaming the leaders for any of this. They did what they could in the circumstances. My son wasn't that interested in housework badges and animal helpers badges. I tried to persuade him it wouod get more outdoorsy but in the end I couldn't force him and he decided to leave to pursue other sports and activities he found more interesting.

Not in the UK so didn't have the same restrictions. I just didn't realise the UK restrictions affected so much of the outside stuff with distance regulations outside, I understand that would make it more difficult.

Doing scouts outside is that straightforward where we are though - we had to bring our children to the place they were meeting, wherever it was so they didn't have to provide transportation and toilets weren't taken into consideration, it was a case of 'go before you go' or do a bush wee (last camp DD was on there was no toilets so everyone had to do bush wees the whole time), and they had the same amount of leaders as always so don't think ratios were affected. Scouts seemed to be the less affected thing during the pandemic, they were much better prepared simply because they were used to operating outside much of the time and the rules were less strict for outside activities involving children. I didn't volunteer, her group had no shortage of staff.

And theyre off on a fishing adventure tonight and tomorrow.
Im actually unwell so I have minimal energy to stress out, and I need the alone time to recover, but I wish they would just play a game of chess one day or something.

Does he ever just let them stay at home and make their own entertainment or get bored?

Why don't you ask him to take them. X

Does he ever just let them stay at home and make their own entertainment or get bored?

Yes although not for very long!

Why does this actually annoy you so much?

Why does this actually annoy you so much?

Annoyance is the wrong word. It just makes me nervous!

🤣

Does he ever just let them stay at home and make their own entertainment or get bored?

Occasionally. But he is quite compulsive about these activities. He has planned it again for tomorrow as a done deal. Even though I will not have to work and it would not be my choice of activity. One part of me says crack on. The other part of me says woah, wait a minute. We haven't discussed this.