Camping with Webelos

[Renax127]

 

This is a youth program, not a family program. YMCA has family programs, families are free to check them out.

 

Stosh

Great Advice lets give people reasons not to join Boy Scouts and give another option where Families can spend what few chances they have to spend time together. Since Boy Scouts is about Youth unless it is Female youth then they don't matter

I understand that people want a "family experience" I just wonder if any of them demand that the little sister play in the brothers baseball game too.

[Basementdweller]

Keep telling yourselves that...Mean while Scouting in the Rest of the World is Treking along Co-Ed at all levels. Just In America do we continue to hold onto the separate but Equal Programs However Boy Scouts just Happens to be superior than everyone else attitudes

Keep it up, we will be coed soon enough. It will kill our troops outdoor program as the boys parents barely slow down enough to let them exit the care. I know that recruiting a mom to be the coed leader will be a problem for us.

 

 

I have NO interest in running a family recreational club. I hate HATE HHAATTEE family camping. I will never allow it with our troop. One parent per scout ONLY please.

[Basementdweller]

Our troop is hosting our Webelos this coming weekend.

 

We had a number of webelos parents inquiring about attending......My response is that is fine, No alcohol or tobacco, your not sleeping in your van, your not hanging around the campfire while the troop and webs are doing program, It is not free, you pay same as the boys, you will help cook and answer to the Scout Head cook. This is not a poker weekend.

 

Well that knocked off all but 2. I have these guys pegged as my future ASM so it worked out.

[Austinole]

I understand where you are coming from. It has been my goal to get Webelos IIs off with out the family. It mostly works out but, as some have mentioned, it is tough for a parent to be on a campout and leave a sibling behind. When that does happen I let them know up front that the Webelos will tent and camp as patrol. Any extra campers are off to the side. I know there are some kids that wouldn't come if I was absolute on Webelos only.

[Stosh]

I understand where you are coming from. It has been my goal to get Webelos IIs off with out the family. It mostly works out but, as some have mentioned, it is tough for a parent to be on a campout and leave a sibling behind. When that does happen I let them know up front that the Webelos will tent and camp as patrol. Any extra campers are off to the side. I know there are some kids that wouldn't come if I was absolute on Webelos only.

That's the decision of the parent to not have their scout go on the outing. This is why if the parent really wanted their son to go, I had the temporary guardian permission slip for them to consider and I then assigned a mature Boy Scout to buddy up with them and help me keep an eye on them.

 

If there's a will, there's a way. Yes, there are parents out there that will "punish" the boy by not allowing him to go if siblings can't go. I've seen it done many times. But as a scout leader, one cannot trump parents no matter what they choose to do.

 

There are a lot of options out there for the siblings, Johnny's going camping and Suzie has to go to grandmas for the weekend, or a sleep over at a friends house, or as a last resort, use the guardian permission slip. It may not solve the problem completely, but it does offer more options for parents to consider other than just not letting Johnny go.

 

Stosh

[Twocubdad]

Has policy changed? I thought the thing which was different between Webelos den camping and Cub Scout camping is that Webelos are allowed to camp with only their (two) den leaders. Parental supervision is not a requirement. We certainly ran Webelos resident camp that way.

[ScoutNut]

Nope - this has been the guideline for many years -

 

From the Guide to Safe Scouting -

• A Webelos Scout may participate in overnight den camping when supervised by an adult. In most cases, the Webelos Scout will be under the supervision of his parent or guardian. It is essential that each Webelos Scout be under the supervision of a parent-approved adult. Joint Webelos den/troop campouts including the parents of the Webelos Scouts are encouraged to strengthen ties between the pack and troop. Den leaders, pack leaders, and parents are expected to accompany the boys on approved trips.
  

Also from the Guide to Safe Scouting -

 

If a well-meaning leader brings along a child who does not meet these age guidelines, disservice is done to the unit because of distractions often caused by younger children. A disservice is also done to the child, who is not trained to participate in such an activity and who, as a nonmember of the group, may be ignored by the older campers.

[ScoutNut]

Webelos resident camp is a different thing entirely. However, there are still youth to adult ratios that must be maintained.

[perdidochas]

Keep telling yourselves that...Mean while Scouting in the Rest of the World is Treking along Co-Ed at all levels. Just In America do we continue to hold onto the separate but Equal Programs However Boy Scouts just Happens to be superior than everyone else attitudes

I pretty much agree with BD. It would be hard to find female leaders who are as hardcore about camping as most male leaders. Our SM and about two others of us are at almost every campout. Female leaders are welcome, but we pretty much just get them to come on rare occasions. The other thing is that it would increase the drama. When you have teenaged boys and girls together, there will be romantic drama. (I taught middle school for three years, high school for five years, my wife has been a middle school asst principal for 6 yrs, after 5 yrs in the middle school classroom, and a year as a disciplinary dean in a middle school). We don't need the drama.

 

We do have a coed set of units in BSA, the Venture Scouts. Until then, we give boys a time to develop. 11 yr old boys are about 2 yrs less mature than 11 yr old girls. They don't come close to catching up until about age 14 or 15. Boys need a girl free zone, IMHO.

 

I agree with BD about family camping. Our troop does a family camp every August, along with a COH at the campsite. My wife and I go for the day, but don't camp with them (partly because it's August in NW FL with the lows at night in the 80s, with 95% humidity, but partly because I don't want to see my semi-independent scouts become Mama's and Daddy's boys). It changes the dynamic too much. The other side to that, is that I can see why we have some lazy scouts--their parents do too much for them, and it's a shock to their system when in the Troop they have to pull their own weight.

[qwazse]

 

This is a youth program, not a family program. YMCA has family programs, families are free to check them out.

 

Stosh

Great Advice lets give people reasons not to join Boy Scouts and give another option where Families can spend what few chances they have to spend time together. Since Boy Scouts is about Youth unless it is Female youth then they don't matter

Grade-school female siblings, I'm kinda okay with. Half of my boy scouts scream like girls anyway.

But my ulterior motive (if and when I allow them to participate in one of our activities with our parents) is to inspire moms to be the kinda GS leader that motivate their girls to enjoy "roughing it" so that a few years from now they will be Venturing ready.

 

Jr. High ladies ... I'm in complete and utter terror of them. A lot of what I find myself doing with the boys the same age is unpacking the "Disney Drama" culture that is foisted on them at school. So, without moms or really insightful older sisters who can help work against the culture from the female side of things, I'm just this mean old man telling them to leave the H&BA behind and come out with me and some very strange moms who somehow aren't afraid to look like they've been dragged through yards of laurel thickets at the end of the day.

 

Simply put, the BSA is not prepared to bring Jr. High youth of both sexes through that transition via outdoor methods. Until that is something that is valued across the USA (and I would argue that it is not, looking at our First Families going back many administrations), we troop leaders are better off introducing new parents to what we know works: giving boys the space to be boys while demanding a high level integrity from them.

[mudman2003]

At Webelos level, our webelo woods or webelo campout is for webelos only and a parent or two. We have families where it's only one kid and the husband and wife come. Thatt's fine, brothers and sisters are not allowed. Webelo campouts for us are where the scouts are being taught to operate outdoors at a partol and we also introduce the camping in a tent with a buddy if they want.

[Eagle92]

For whatever reason, we had a family with a Webelos show up at the boy scout camporee. Don't know if they got the weekend confused with the CS Family Camp the next weekend, but they did their own thing, and visited a few troops. It was a distraction to a degree, but overlooked since it was one family an they were on their own. But I cased me concerns since A) they were out of place and B) my oldest who was camping and doing the rounds with a troop ended up fishing with his friend.