Scouts weekend trip- would you expect updates/a few photos?

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If your child has gone on an overnight trip with scouts, is it unreasonable to expect a few group photos or a quick update from the leaders? It’s DS first trip away and he was a little apprehensive camping for the first time. We’ve not received a single photo or update on the group chat. I messaged privately & got a very general reply with an implied don’t bother me again so I’m left feeling uneasy. It’s cubs scouts and ds is age 8.

I am being unreasonable - parents don’t need to be updated at all
YANBU - parents should be sent a group pic/update daily.

Whilst I understand photos are nice, they are literally a snapshot of a moment. If your DS isn’t in any of them, what are you going to do? If he’s not smiling or not looking fully involved in the activity, what are you going to do?

My son went on several cub trips/camps and we never once got an update, the leaders are there to be doing activities and supervising, not contacting parents which will then result in parents messaging them back. Let them get on with it and you’ll hear about it when they’re back.

The leaders are busy making sure your son has a great time! You are not the priority here

What you could do is

buy a phone and pay the bill each month and donate it to the group for its sole use

write a photography policy

send, process and chase up consent forms for photo permissions before every trip

get a DBS

do a risk assessment for each trip

go on all trips and take and send photos to the parents

make sure you go on every trip as understandably there will be many, many complaints if some trips are photographed and others are not

Yabu. Im assuming going on the trip isnt compulsory so if this issue is important you would need to check before booking them on the trip. Then if a deal breaker just not let him go.

bit unreasonable really. be grateful these guys volunteer to provide these opportunities.

I'm a leader and we have plenty of cases where we take 3 or more kids away for the weekend, so the parents are kid free and go on a city break.

then we get back and need to unload and dry the kit out, ask for parental help. Do you think we get much?

It depends on the leader, we tend get a few pics to our private Facebook group, but I definitely wouldn't expect it if they didn't appear.
I think it's a "nice to have" if the leaders have time. But should not be an obligation.
Did you have a chat with the leaders at drop off to let them know your DC was a little nervous? If so I'm sure they are looking after him.

Part of the planning for the event is your In Touch process (how parents can get in touch with you in emergency, how you will get in touch with them in emergency etc). In an ideal world this is shared with parents. My Cub camp information used to include: "In an emergency, you can get hold of us on these numbers.... Please check that your contact information is up-to-date on OSM, so we can contact you if we need to. We'll try to pop a few updates and pics on the FB group, but can't guarantee."
Interestingly, some parents aren't sitting on socials waiting anxiously for an update. I had one Cub need to be collected as they were unwell, but the parent had taken the child-free weekend as an opportunity for a trip away and was very miffed they had to get a friend to come and collect the child while they travelled back from their spa break.

Guide leader - we don’t send updates. On a practical level I don’t have time to deal with follow up questions and comments, and at camp there is often only one place to charge a phone.

Parents are aware they won’t hear from us unless there’s an issue, but also I do have my phone and they can send a quick message if they’re worried about their Guide. If a Guide has been a bit upset at drop off I make sure I send a message later on to reassure parent that they are all settled.

We have a password protected drive that we can put photos into and give strict instructions about not sharing these. A number of our guides (and me!) have restricted photo permissions.

We’ve never had any complaints or issues about the way we do things.

I get the anxiety but I would just think of it like the more the scout leaders are on their phones, the less they're watching the kids.

The trip is for your son’s benefit, not yours. The Scout leaders should be focused on the kids and making sure they’re safe and having a good time, not on making the parents at home happy

No because it’s not nursery.

And this is exactly why I stopped volunteering.

From volunteers?! She should send something like:

“Thanks for taking my kid away and facilitating this experience for them, for free on your own time, and despite the awful things others have done at Scouts leaving me feeling justified to group you with child abusers. But do it better, please.”?

No, we’ve never gotten anything. Not the done thing unless there is a problem.

The access to 24 hour information has been a nightmare for so many! Before this was available parents were very glad to hear nothing, maybe a postcard if it was a longer trip, hearing nothing was a sign that one's child was OK! It's little wonder that we get so many posts about the ineptitude of older 'children', those starting University still attached to mummy's apron strings.

As it's cub scouts and your son is 8, I do not think it is unreasonable to expect a quick 'everyone has settled for the night after a good evening of scout activities' kind of text or WhatsApp to all parents. A specific personal message is unlikely.

If I were taking groups away, which I used to do, I wouldn't want to take GG85's child away, for my own safety!

We tried doing it a few years ago. It took up time and attention that we didn’t have spare. Some kids couldn’t be in photos and others we just didn’t have photo permissions for, so these had to be avoided. The cheap payg phone we bought for the purpose had terrible battery life and the signal was generally awful. Parents complained if there was a gap/delay in photos, if their kid wasn’t in photos (either because we couldn’t or they were stapled to a kid who we couldn’t photograph, but obvs we couldn’t divulge that), if it wasn’t a great photo of kid. The complaining took up as much time as the photo logistics. Complaints about favourites, about sidelining certain kids, about racism (we had no consent for the three non-white kids one year so they weren’t in any photos). So we stopped it but made it clear we were stopping it. If we are travelling together we will text on arrival. If parents are organising their own transport we don’t. No news is good news unless there is a specific issue we are aware of beforehand (the kid who is flagged up with food issues and parent is worried they won’t eat anything, the kid whose grandma/hamster just died and might have a wobble etc.). It is easier to have a blanket “no updates” rule than to have different expectations causing discontent. And the campers safety and enjoyment have to be our focus, not documenting every moment for parents at home.

I'm a Brownie leader. When we take them away, we try to put regular updates on Facebook as I know parents like to see that (and because responses to the photos are often the only acknowledgement/thanks we actually get! 😂).

But parents shouldn't expect updates. My role is to look after your kid and make sure they are safe, well, fed, and happy. My role is not to manage the emotions of grown adults. Great if leaders can provide photos, but they may not have time/ability to do so. If there's a problem, they'll get in touch.

Isn’t the whole point of scouting to encourage young people to develop independence and life skills? Just about the last thing leaders need to do is feed tasty scraps to helicopter parents. Children do not need this obsessive level of parental surveillance.

No. DD went on multiple scout camps over the years. Weekends to whole weeks. She first went aged 10 to camp during a cold rainy weekend in October. She had a great time. We never received a single txt or photo during the trip - apart from one notable occasion when there was a storm some of the tents blew down - but they all piled in together and decided to stick it out. They txted in the morning to stay they had discussed it & the scouts wanted to stay despite the apalling weather.
No news is good news. Let them get on with it. My DDs leaders were saints - they provided her with so many great experiences over the years & most importantly supported her independence. She finished up leading her own weekend camp.

She also went away with beavers & cubs. No updates. All fine. Im sure they would welcome volunteers if you'd like to go.

The leaders will be in touch if there's a problem. OP I'm sorry but it's time to let go a little.

We had a camp WhatsApp and they uploaded pics throughout the day. Yes I’d expect this.