To ask if you were a brownie or a guide?

[Pavementworrier]

Apparently 1/3 of British women have been at one point

I LOVED Brownies

So many of my adult life skills are thanks to those badges

Neither. Mum wouldn’t allow me to go as you had to pledge allegiance to the queen. My youngest went to Brownies but not guides and my eldest went to Guides but not Brownies. They didn’t camp once. The guide leaders were exasperated with some of the attitudes of the girls. I don’t blame them, they’re unpaid and come from a day’s work.

I was - Started at age 7. Had the shock of my life when the leader ‘Brown Owl’ decided from day 1 that she didn’t like me. She relentlessly bullied me and looking back I can’t believe some of the things she said and did to a small child.

I don’t know why but I remember distinctly at the time thinking ‘I haven’t done anything wrong but I’m getting told off all the time and she hates me’ so it just clicked in my mind that I would just actually then be naughty?? I was PERFECT at school in fact very quiet and shy so every week when this woman would phone my DM to tell her how awful i was I could hear my DM saying ‘but she’s so good at school?’ And ‘no we’ve never have behaviour issues before?’ It escalated and escalated (for some reason she threatened expelling me but never did?) it’s like she wanted me there to be her emotional punchbag and she was angry when I laughed at her rather than crying. Strangely I used to cry not wanting to go to school but was happy to go to brownies each week ??!!! Some of the things she did were horrible as well I’d just take it then turn round and do something really naughty just to watch her literally explode in anger.

I was in Girls' Brigade. Can't really remember what we actually did now, apart from military-style drill and learning to play the bugle. Are they still going?

Neither.

Brownies, I hated it with a passion and resented going, mine was an incredibly lame one.
the cubs and scouts who were in the other room of the hall got to do all the cool things, that I wanted to do, they did all sorts of outdoor stuff, we never left the hall and did absolutely rubbish things, a one that sticks in my mind was a teddy bears picnic. I think I was an imp or a kelpie? Whichever one has the red logo for the patch.

Also when I left brownies I only had the ‘Road’ badge as she told me I ‘wasn’t mature enough’ for the highway badge so I wasn’t actually like the the other girls and that it would hold me back in life. It’s funny how nobody has ever asked me if I achieved the brownie highway badge!!! I remember when she said it just before the leaving ceremony and I just said to her ‘ I like green better anyway’ as the road badge was green (I think footpath was brown and highway red?) she was furious !

Brownies and Guides. DD did Rainbows, Brownies and Guides.

Brownie for a bit, can’t really remember anything about it.

That is a challenge isn't it, trying to avoid claims of favouritism. I'm a Rainbows leader, and waa very careful to not show preference to my girls, they in reality probably had to work harder(DD1 was in Rainbows, now 10, DD2 6 still in Rainbows) DD1 is a sixer in Brownies, none of her group of friends has made sixer yet despite all being at least 9 and some being 10 (year 5) and I worried her friends would say she only got it due to me also being a leader, although I knew nothing about it until she actually got it. Our guides unit is very full so she won't move up until nearly 11.

That’s horrible. Feel sorry for your younger self.

Loathed it as did my daughter. Seemed hugely dated, boring,twee, and out of touch. Soon to get a whole lot worse. Scouts and Beavers was a whole lot better and if had my time again I’d send my daughter there. More inclusive, less dull and twee. The all girl thing aside from not being inclusive is toxic and I don’t think is healthy. My daughter went to an all girls school too, another parenting mistake I wouldn’t make again.

I was a brownie but perhaps not a very good one as I only ever managed to get about 3 badges!

Yes our pack had their favourites. It was soooo cliquey and they hated girls that were in any way not the meek and mild type. ND girls were definitely not their type. My daughter and her friends were all ND and just used to be sidelined or told off. As I said zero zero inclusivity. I’d avoid it completely now.

When I look back I feel horrified as I obviously know now what she did was abusive, then I just think how at such a young age I found a way to cope and I feel equally proud of myself as I do horrified by it all as she really met her match. She was positively raging some weeks and had met her match in a 7/8/9 year old!

I have ASD so maybe it was that making her feel a certain way towards me ?

I was in Woodcraft Folk aged six, but I didn't get on well with the other children, so I only stayed a few months. I liked some of our outings, though, and did one overnight trip.

I remember my dad taking me there by bus, and asking in amazement when he came to pick me up "why were you all lying flat on the floor?". I felt silly explaining that we were playing "dead soldiers" to see who could lie still the longest. I remember being confused by some of the circle games we used to play, as they were never really explained: there was a really complicated one in which one child would run and tap somebody on the head, who then had to follow them as they ran in and out of the circle, I could never get that right. But I was good at the game "keeper of the keys" where one of us had to point at whoever was creeping up and trying to steal the keys by my feet: so good, that no thieves could get past me, and they thought I must be cheating, so they double-checked that I was blindfolded properly. I just had very good directional hearing!

Loved brownies, hated guides as it was run by the local Posh People.

I was both, but not for very long stretches. I'd hoped to do interesting things and earn badges, but both the Brownie pack and the Guide company consisted of little else but playing playground-type games, which wasn't my thing at all. This was the 1980s.

I was a Brownie - liked it well enough but wasn't that bothered about camp etc. Some sessions I really enjoyed and others were a bit meh. I was a Sixer and very proud of that! Then I was a Guide and gave up after a few months. It was mostly girls I avoided at school so that put me off. Might've enjoyed it otherwise.

DD was a Brownie (also a Sixer and very pleased about it!) and is now a Guide. She'd rather not go but she'd rather not do anything! Some nights she comes out and says it was boring/awful/the worst, other nights she says it was good fun/brilliant/the best ever. The leaders are so compassionate and would move heaven and earth to make her comfortable there, they're so lovely.

DS is a Beaver and is exactly the same. They are definitely my children!

Yeah, we had issues with the allegiance thing but the nearest WF was too far away.

My friend took me to Brownies and I pottered around happily there for a couple of years, metaphorically crossing fingers behind my back for the God and Queen stuff.

I started Guides but my mum announced one night that I was leaving. Still don't know why.

My own kids went to Woodcraft Folk and I'm still involved occasionally. I spent 10 days at our 100th anniversary camp this year.

I was a Brownie! I still remember the ‘promise’ off by heart and later I was a guide. Our guides were one of the only troop to do the bosun badge! We had to fox and row a boat around the Norfolk Broads. Loved it.

I was a Brownie (Rainbows hadn't been around long and there wasn't one on my area) went to guides for a bit but wasn't keen.

I still have a my sash, I found it recently when moving and either my group wasn't very good or it was common to not get many badges as I only managed to get 4 in the two years I was there! I have fond memories of trips to the panto and "world guides day" though.

DD goes to Rainbows and is due to move to Brownies next year

I loved my years at Brownies and Guides, although I changed Guide packs at some point as the others all decided they didn't like me. No idea why as we'd been friends since primary school and were friends at school still.

Although we did a lot of homemaker/hostess stuff, we also camped, hiked, rambled, learnt how to make camp fires and leave no trace etc. Although my mum is adamant that we only did "twee" stuff and that any of the fun stuff is things my brothers taught me

I was heartbroken when I found out that they were accepting boys. As a CSA survivor, that single sex space was so important to me.

Nope. I tried it once because my best friend went and raved about it. They kept talking about God and it made me feel uncomfortable so I never returned.

My DS is a beaver and they’ve dropped the God stuff now so it’s improved a lot.

I was a brownie and a guide.
I loved Brownies and then Guides I wasn't as keen on but my parents made me go.

But we did lovely things. With guides I camped a lot in the Lake District, but also on two London trips where we stayed in a scout facility in North London. We had to wear our uniform everywhere but we were on and off tubes, went to Harrods, went to the front door of Downing St (pre IRA barricades!) and had our photo taken with the policeman on the door. And we went to Musicals in the West End. So arguably it opened my eyes to a lot for a girl from the North.

I also learnt how to climb on a pile of pallets at the local guide/scout camp, to forage wood for the fire. The safeguarding issues now would be horrendous. We were literally clambering over massive piles of water wooden pallets with nails sticking out and wasps nests underneath! Awful.

Our guider banned modern sleeping bags and we had to make bedding rolls with nappy pins and sleep in leaky ridge tents. Not so fun!