Humanist is now a religion.

[st0ut717]

@natelie,

 

Age issue should goto council. the current pack adults are doing a disservice by falsifying birth dates. In my book if you lose popularity points because you shine a light into a dark corner you will be awarded in good karma.

 

I hated Cub Scouts. I was against Cub scouts when he first joined (under the advisement of the school system to build social skills) Like you i hated the arts and crafts and the activities seem far to childish and i was really only involved at the Den level. My son tolerated Cub scouts and was about ready to quit until his webelo 1 boy scout troop camp out. it was at that point where we realized that Boy scouts was not cub scouts. He stuck out he next 2 years simply for the fact he wanted to cross over in the best way possible.

 

So far my son has thrived at Boy scouts. even as a 12 YO he is pushing star rank and his troop awarded him into the OA.

I would not judge boy scouts on a cub scout experience .

 

If your son wants more adventure seek a different pack or just wait till crossover and find a HA troop in your area.

 

If he doesn't like camping boy scouts may not be for him.

 

I hope he and you find something that interest him besides couches and video games.

[SSScout]

Natalie W.: The eveidence is in your last sentence above. Cub Scouts can NEVER have enough Leaders, if they are the right kind.

You are the parent I want in my Pack (if I had one, usta be a CM). Inquisitive, wants to be involved, is in there for their boy. I would find you a duty, get you a patch(!) on your sleeve (get you a sleeve!). Your erstwhile Pack is a sham, by your description. Touting good citizenship and not following the rules is not what Scouting is about.

Find another Pack. Talk to the other parents and FOUND your own Pack. The hardest thing about starting a Scout unit is finding a willing Charter Org sponsor, the rest will fall into place. Have you talked to your District Commissioner? Look on the Council website and click around until you find him/her. They are a volunteer and will help you do right by your boy. The District Executive may help, but he/she is an overworked employee who has other things on their mind besides one parent troubled by Pack politics.

In the mean time, take pride in the things your boy accomplishes, whether macaroni necklace or cabin building. I would hardly be the man I am today without the cork Thunderbird I made as a Cub that my mom saved and I found in her cabinet after her passing.

Look thru the other Cub threads here and on other websites. Talk to other Scout parents in your area. Go to Cub RoundTable (again, see the Council/District website) and meet some REAL Scout leaders. You sound as if you want to be convinced. Those are the folks that can do that.

 

Good Scouting to you and your future Boy Scout!

[Natalie W]

Thanks St0ut717 and SSScout! I think I'm grasping for way in. Maybe to talk myself out of a funk.

 

My son seems a lot like yours (St0ut717) toward scouting. He might like camping if we ever went. My son is a 'noodler': he doesn't seem to care about anything other than playing with his toys. He seems to enjoy things in the moment but I think if I told him he could never go anywhere again he would just sit at home happily playing with toys though. If I let him he would just play pretend with his toys all day, which he sometimes does on weekends for 6 hours straight. I was hoping out of all the things I stick him in he would LOVE scouting the best and I had high hopes because it sounded great (son-mother friendly activities) and something I could do (unlike if he got into skate boarding or soccer --because I'm overweight with bad knees). He seems to be drifting to Karate which he has just been noodling along in like scouts but now seems to talk about non-stop. Now he is being proactive, practicing, and asking to take another class per week in Karate. Obviously I just sit on sidelines there but didn't have that hope from beginning that it would be great.

 

SSScout: thanks for the pep talk!!! I needed it.

[Rick_in_CA]

I can't find much on them but a cub parent in my pack is saying she might leave and join a group called navigator that is starting at her son's school. What I did read said they were humanist and implied that it was non-religious making them different. The other parent is into camping and our pack doesn't camp. Navigator's according to her and one article I read sounds more camping and less about anything else (so lots of camping' date=' some environmental clean up but none of the religion requirements or citizenship requirements). Actually I think all they do is camp and don't have a 'reward'/requirement structure. I did read somewhere in a 'how we picked and how you can pick the outdoor program that best fits your style' article which listed out generalizations about every outdoor group, many of which I've never heard of, that this navigator group is humanist based and possibly non-religious but maybe associated with a religion united Unitarian: it is the one the person who wrote the article joined and he was an atheist.[/quote']

 

It sounds like they are talking about Navigators USA. While the founders were leaders of a boy scout troop with a Unitarian CO, it is not affiliated with any church or group. They do have some sort of achievement and awards system, and like the BSA try to teach leadership, independence, good citizenship, etc. I don't know much more about them.