AIBU to volunteer at Cubs camp to support my AUDHD son?

[Floralscent]

Hi all,
I’m just looking for a bit of advice/other people’s experiences. My son is due to go on his first Cubs camp soon. He’s really excited, but he’s also AUDHD and can struggle a bit with things like new environments, sleep, and following instructions in a busy group.
I’m already starting to feel a bit anxious about how he’ll manage being away, especially overnight. I absolutely don’t want to hold him back or make him feel different, but at the same time I want to make sure he’s properly supported.

I was wondering if it’s ever appropriate for a parent to offer to help out at camp as a volunteer? I don’t mean hovering over him, just being around in case he needs a bit of extra support settling in. But assisting the other children too of course.

Any advice would be really appreciated!

I presume you're trying to reassure the OP? From a leadership perspective our unit would very much welcome a parent coming to have this kind of conversation with us. Sure we've taken Cubs on camp with us before but we're all unique, so it's a different dynamic each time we go on camp with different Cubs.
Some of our leaders have a good few years experience, for others it's their first camp. Whilst all of our leaders are parents, none of them work with primary aged children in their day jobs, so to describe our leaders as very experienced it would definitely be a stretch.
OP, I would recommend messaging the leaders and asking if you can chat your concerns over at the beginning or end of a session. You will need a Scouting DBS but as you already have one in your day job it should come through quickly.
In our unit we have parents who aren't able to commit to regularly helping at sessions but come on every camp and do roles such as cooking, prepping kit etc. It's one less thing for the Leaders to think about so is very much appreciated. Have a chat with them and see where it takes you.

Yanbu

I have a DBS as I work in a school

They aren't transferable, sadly. Despite that being the idea when they moved to DBS from CRB. Many people have 2, 3, or even 4 for each of the different things they do.

You would also need to do - at a minimum the Safety and Safeguarding training too.

To answer your question - I don't think any of us can say. As pps have said, it will depend on both the number of Leaders and the skills and experience they have between them. It will also depend on the severity of need and how your ds reacts (which, as he hasn't been before, will, at best, be an educated guess).

You need to have the conversation with the Volunteers at your own son's pack. Some will be extremely appreciative and relieved at your offer, others will know of so many examples where it doesn't work well with parents there, and will know of many, many examples of youngsters really flourishing beyond the parents' wildest dreams when they go on camp.

How far away is the camp ? How realistic would it be for you to be on stand-by if needed, but to let him try on his own, first ?

Oh, and 3 nights is a fab length for a cub. Remember it won't be the first camp for all the older cubs, and also many of the 8 yr olds will have been on camp - or at least sleepovers - as Beavers.

It is pretty normal for parents to become assistant leaders in that position, so you attend group nights and also camps 'in case of emergency' but would be grouped with children that are not your own child as much as possible.

An exception might be that you could share a 2-man tent with your own child on camp if he was really going to struggle sleeping in a group tent for a medical reason and doing that allowed him to access the camp at all - but generally the idea would be to try the group tent for him first rather than defaulting to that.

You'd actually be a leader then though, so you'd have to do the full scouting onboarding etc.

Irrelevant.

You will need a DBS with scouts. DH has had a total of 6 different DBS all within a two year period because you can't use a DBS with a different organisation.

Scouts will not allow anyone overnight on camp without one.

Our group will allow parents to one to one. Especially at that age. In fact with some it's actively preferred as they aren't ready to go without a parent and the leaders don't have the ability to cover the care needed. However the point is about building independence so it would involve a discussion about needs and whether it's in the best interests of that child (or whether it's about parental anxiety) - and to have a long term strategy for that to work towards.

When I was a leader, we would invite 1 parent helper for each six
They would always be "in charge" of a different six to their children, so they weren't stepping on their child's toes
It worked well for children with health issues. Comfort if needed, but free to do stuff on their own