Sweets at cubs and beavers

[Ellbell84]

Do your kids get sweets at cubs and beavers as a reward for good behaviour? My sons always come back wired and it takes hours for them to go to bed. Don’t know if I’m old fashioned and it’s a thing now but would rather they weren’t having sweets at 7pm midweek. AIBU?

You had beef?
The groups are run by volunteers, many of whom work. So the times are often set partly dictated on when the main leaders can actually get there. Run it yourself if you want an earlier finish.

Remember lots of kids would struggle to get there before 6.30 too.

We don't have any issues with 5pm start - we have a 2 year+ wait list. Rainbows in our hut starts at 4.30, and they also have a 2 year wait list. With 2 Rainbows, 2 Brownies, 1 guides, 2 Beavers, 2 cubs and 2 scouts to get into each week (shared hut), we usually have 3 groups running in sequence each night Monday to Thursday (no one wants to volunteer on a Friday) - Rainbows 4.30-5.30 cubs 6-7.15, scouts 7.30- 9 for example. Beavers 5-6, Brownies 6.15-7.30, guides 8pm-9.15 are 2 of our days

If only ran groups after 6.30, how would we fit 11 groups into 4 days?

@Bushmillsbabe you are volunteers. You run it at the time that is best for you and sensible. Nearly all groups have waiting lists whenever they run anyway.

Absolutely. But someone said children would struggle to get there by 5, my point was that we haven't found this to be the case. The earlier groups are the ones with the longest wait lists. As shown by this post, later groups can be more challenging for children as they go on past their bedtime, and they end up 'wired' as OP puts it.

But I do appreciate your point that volunteers may struggle to get there before 5.30/6 if they work, and agree that if people want different times then they are more than welcome to set up their own group- as volunteers we definitely get our fair share of parents moaning, and I often think 'if you think you can do better, go for it'

Not often. They occasionally have food when it’s a themed week or they’ll have a bun sometimes if it’s a party but that’s it. They tend to hand out small toys as prizes for certain awards rather than sweets.

Beavers is 6 and cubs 7 where we live which is perfect for us as DH finishes work at 5 so can easily drop him. We wouldn’t be able to do 5.

I often give my Cubs a biscuit half way through a Cubs meeting. None of the parents have complained …

Ours run Beavers and Cubs 6.30
Scouts and Explorers 8-9.30

Two halls but in the one night. Guides do similar so 8 groups in 2 nights.

I struggle to finish work at 5pm, collect and feed kids and be at the halls for 6.30 its really not a lot of time, esp when you add 20min travel into the mix.
When I was looking for Beavers I knew 6.00 was a no go.

For sure but that just means you have a lot of part time or non working parents in your area. It wouldn’t work here as we discovered when we tried to have a school disco at 430pm for the wee ones after many, many complaints that 6pm was too late. Then we just got more complaints that 430 was impossible. Literally no way to please everyone and as you say - someone else is welcome to run these things if they choose!

I don't think so, it's quite an affluent area. Quite a few parents who can wfh and pick up from school, work for an hour and then drop at 4.30. Some tag team with other parents from same school with one dropping over and another collecting.

Our school discos are straight after school for Reception to year 2, the teacher take them over and supervise and parents collect at 4.30, or some go back to after school club.

Part-time and non working, includes the more affluent stay at home parents.
Not just the non working claiming benefits.

Or you have a lot of grandparents able to do the school runs and drop offs