Can I bring my younger son to scout campouts?

[perdidochas]

What's wrong with posting to a 'Lazarus' thread? Have you seen "The Walking Dead"? (I'm not talking about political candidates)

 

Just my general personal rule for posting on internet boards.  

[frankpalazzi]

I don't allow this.  Every time I have approved it, I have regretted it.

 

Stosh

 

By the way, even if it is explicitly stated that the younger sibling must stay with the parent, it never works out that way.  They ALWAYS run off and become a problem.

 

Stosh

Oh yes.  Every. Single. Time.   It does a major disservice to the Troop.  And "disservice" is used in the G2SS.

[dedkad]

Edit: I didn't realize I was posting to a Lazarus thread.  I deleted my comments for that reason.  

Sometimes there's nothing wrong with posting to a Lazarus thread. Many issues that were relevant years ago are still relevant today. The discussion years ago was dominated by a few individuals, so it's nice to get some more opinions from others. I've been off this site for awhile, but I came on tonight to specifically look for this topic because I had a run-in with a new crossover's mom. The mom has some trust issues and won't leave her son unless he's supervised by the other parent. The mom wanted to bring not just the younger sibling to Camporee but the husband too. They wanted it to be a family campout where the older son would participate in Camporee while the rest of them took turns going out mountain biking and coming back to supervise the older son.  Poor kid can't even go to summer camp because they can't afford to bring the whole family along.

[Krampus]

Sometimes there's nothing wrong with posting to a Lazarus thread. Many issues that were relevant years ago are still relevant today. The discussion years ago was dominated by a few individuals, so it's nice to get some more opinions from others. I've been off this site for awhile, but I came on tonight to specifically look for this topic because I had a run-in with a new crossover's mom. The mom has some trust issues and won't leave her son unless he's supervised by the other parent. The mom wanted to bring not just the younger sibling to Camporee but the husband too. They wanted it to be a family campout where the older son would participate in Camporee while the rest of them took turns going out mountain biking and coming back to supervise the older son.  Poor kid can't even go to summer camp because they can't afford to bring the whole family along.

 

Same here, except ours requires her son to text her every day at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our guys told him  that electronics had to be off and, if discovered on they would be taken and given back at the end of the trip. PL found the kid texting, politely told him to stop, he didn't and the phone was confiscated by the PL and given back for the ride home. Before doing so the PL told him to send the following:

 

"Dear Mom, I am not allowed to text during camp outs. As a Scout I must be obedient and obey the rules. The rule is there for me to become more independent and grow in to an adult. I will text you again on the way home. I love you."

 

The PL told me what he did and we sent mom a text, pointing her to the website where she could see pictures of the camp out. The kid never once missed his phone and had a blast. When we got back we reminded mom of the electronics rule. Told her that if they didn't like it there were local troops that allowed that sort of thing.

[dedkad]

Krampus, you have a very smart PL.

[Krampus]

Krampus, you have a very smart PL.

 

He found a Dutch oven with cobbler in his camp site for no apparent reason that night.

[Chippewa29]

There are multiple perspectives for these situations. In general, I am opposed to siblings being on campouts. In cases where either the sibling goes or the campout is cancelled, then let the sibling go and make sure the parent keeps them in line. Otherwise, they can visit, but not stay.

 

During the 90's and early 2000's, my troop was pretty small and we were in the situation where a younger sibling needed to come or the campout didn't happen. It wasn't ideal, but it is what was needed to make things work. Once my troop got bigger and we had multiple adults coming on campouts, we still had some parents who thought it would be fun to bring the younger siblings. When it was one or two and the parents kept their eye on them, it wasn't too bad. However, as time went on, we'd have 3, 4, or more younger siblings running around, interfering with the Scouts activities and even parents complaining we didn't have age-appropriate activities for their kids. A lot of parents were just hanging out and not acting as Scout leaders. Some were even interfering with the troop chain of command.

 

We eventually told people they couldn't bring their kids camping overnight on campouts anymore. Some people were upset, but overall, it was a good move for the troop. Eventually, most of the upset people saw why we did what we did and came to agree with it.

 

On the other hand, think of the younger sibling. In the 90's, we had a younger sibling start attending campouts with him parents and older brothers when he was five. He was never a problem (really good kid). By the time he was nine, he was going on pretty much every campout. When he joined the troop at 11, it was merely a formality, as he had been around for years. However, by the time this Scout was 13, he was getting bored with Scouts and by 14, he was burned out and didn't really want to do the same things he'd been doing since he was five. He managed to stay around until he got his Eagle at 16, but his participation level was really low those last two years. Had he not gone on so many campouts at such a young age, he probably wouldn't have gotten burned out as early as he did.