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

[icedout]

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.

In my experience its absolutely normal to hear nothing at all even on week long trips. I always thought no news was good news.

If you dont trust the leaders you shouldnt let you let kids go. Texts or photo updates do nothing to improve safeguarding.

But they are not there to manage your anxiety.

They are VOLUNTEERS making sure your child is happy.

If you want to know what is going on then volunteer!

No I wouldn't expect updates for a weekend.

I don't remember updates from rainbow or beaver camp. But we had dropped off and were picking up so we knew they were there.
Cubs - DH was a leader so I got any updates I wanted whilst wrangling our other child, or some years, both children whilst he wrangled the rest of the village kids.
Scouts (week camp) used to do a locked FB page with tonnes of photos and updates but have stopped that. I assume some kids didn't have consent for photos. Now they just text on arrival and that's it. Scouts aren't allowed phones so it's 7 days of radio silence. Ds is an explorer so does have his phone... And it's still 7 days of radio silence!
It's harder when it's their first.

I don’t believe I said anyone was there to manage my anxiety…Hope you’re having a relaxing Sunday!

Just pretend it’s the 1960s. Nobody has mobile phones because very few people have even thought of such a thing. If someone wants to telephone, they have to walk to a telephone box. That’s it. Let them get on with it.

There’s so much talk about fostering resilience in children, but parents don’t seem to have any.

Most campsites are in areas with poor signal

we dont send updates for a weekend camp but when we went abroad either the scouts for a week we did photos on the private facebook group each night. But the scouts were all allowed to take thier phones too so could contact home during the day if they wanted (we took the phones off them at night)

You might want to caveat that to say that you are expressing your own opinion not speaking for the world (and imo being rather ridiculous)

I didn't find it necessary nor expected it when my children were on camps

Where were those camps?

The ones my children went to were in fields in rural area there wouldnt have been any way to send photos and constantly recording and uploading seems to spoil the outdoor away from it all independant experience

I'd have hated that as a child

I’m a scout helper (not leader) I’ve had it drilled into me not to take pictures of other people’s kids!
and also the issue around photos bring sent to parents in real time when some just can’t help themselves to share them in places they shouldn’t (Facebook).
one parent was putting them all over her open work page when we had a particularly tricky parent situation.

As a parent you want updates, I get that. But you’ll not be getting them for good reason, e.g busy, no signal. Want to be helping supervise not on their phone constantly

As a Rainbows leader (we only do 1 night trips) we send one update on a whatts app once the girls are settling down for the evening to say they are all fine, what activities they have done, and a couple of photos. Otherwise we get a steady stream of 'hope they have had a good day????' type messages.

I do get it, parents may worry, especially on their first trip. But we do tell them we will contact if any issues, and ultimately parents have to make the decision whether they trust us with their children, and if their child is ready for overnight trips. My oldest was ready at 6, my youngest just did her first at 7 and probably wasn't ready in hindsight.

Why? And how do the photos magically make the children more ‘safe’…? Surely they’re more safe with group leaders who are focused on caring for them and not on making themselves look good on social media. What utter nonsense.

No news is good news. They will contact if there’s a problem. I’d rather they are doing stuff with kids than contacting me.

It wouldn't have crossed my mind to expect any sort of update unless there was a medical incident

Why necessary?

I only did one camp as a Cub Scout leader. For a normal week with nothing traumatic going on it was one of the worst weeks of my life. Nothing went wrong with the kids and I think they all had a good time. And I like normal camping but it was hard work.

I was first aider, it took me best part of an hour every morning to ensure I followed all the instructions on how many puffs of preventer inhaler each child was supposed to have. I’m asthmatic myself so I get it can be serious, but none of these kids had ever been sent with a reliever inhaler to a session or indeed with a reliever inhaler to the camp come to think of it 🤔

Apart from when I was asleep I was permanently ‘on duty’, it was exhausting and dirty and thankless and I’d given up a weeks annual leave to do it 😭

One kid soiled his pants and hid them, when we realised there was a problem we sorted him out and cleaned up discreetly. After the camp the parents grumbled that we’d thrown away the pants. We were on a field, were we supposed to send someone out to the laundrette to wash one pair of shitty pants?

Never ever did scout camp again 😱

Nope. Scouts is about developing independence. Leaders should not be wasting time taking photos - they are of no benefit to the children.
Let the fantastic volunteers concentrate on the camping.

For an overnight, nope, I wouldn’t expect a single update. We didn’t even get them when ds was in Beavers and he was 6!

The only times we got updates on the WhatsApp group was for longer 3-4 day trips.

As @CharityVolunteer said, even on the camps which go well and to plan, there is never a free moment!
On every scout camp I've ever volunteered on, we've had at least 4 of the following:
Girl starts her period for the first time (this happens so often)
Child throws up, usually inside a tent
Child wets/soils themselves
Child is homesick
Child completely refuses to sleep
Child is scared of the dark and can't sleep

Sometimes one of the leaders posts a load of photos after the event, when we have time to check through for photo permissions.

The lack of signal is a real issue too!

Well done to the volunteers taking your kids on cub camp, it's a difficult age group and I am sure they will be doing an amazing job keeping everyone happy.

Our scout leader usually sends one brief update and a photo per day but I wouldn't expect it.

No I wouldnt expect photos, too much of a minefield of child protection to include people. For a weekend I wouldn’t expect updates either

No. It’s a weekend!

But why? They’d contact you if there was a real problem, plus they’re hardly going to say ‘everyone had an ok day but moaned about walking and that the food wasn’t like home’. So there’s no point in a bland update - just let your kids have experiences away from you and talk to them about it when they get back.

If you wanted to know how your child was getting on you should have volunteered to go with them. Do you know how many messages the leaders get on these kind of trips asking how little Timmy is getting on? The leaders dont have time to answer these as they are too busy looking after your child. Be grateful you haven't heard from them, it means your child is fine.