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Boyscout or cubscout experience

T

TXHokie

Platinum Member
I just had my boys joined cubscout. Wanted to see if anyone in ATOT was previously involved with scout and what you thought of it - good or bad. Definitely would like to hear if it helped you later in life. Looks like quite a bit of work for parent as well.
 
Yep. 2 years in Cub Scouts, 1 year in Webelos, 3 years in Boy Scouts.

For me, it was great. I was in a very outdoors oriented Boy Scout troop...lots of camping and woodsman craft taught.
I suppose the various "morals" in Boy Scouts helped me somewhat in my adult life...I certainly don't think it HURT me in any way.
 
I have two boys in cubs right now. I've been a den leader for three years and I'm on the leadership committee for the pack.

You are absolutely right that its work for the parents. The boys will get out of it exactly what the parents put into it. If you expect that all you need to do is to drop your boys off at den meetings, you're doing your kids a disservice.

We have a large pack with over 50 scouts. But out of all of those families, there are only about 10 parents that do most of the work. We have to plan and arrange a year's worth of activities for the pack, coordinate with the local council, figure out fundraising, etc. etc. etc.

And most of the pack leaders also run dens, in which they have to plan a completely separate set of activities, and interface with all of their den's families, which also involves juggling schedules, having activities for siblings that tag along, and sometimes getting involved in delicate discussions about money or behavior.

My suggestion is that you offer to help the den leader, or help with a pack event. Your pack has a Pinewood Derby coming up soon, and a Blue & Gold ceremony right after that. These are events that require a lot of work, so talk to your den or pack leader about what you can do. Sometimes it's just coming in to help set up the race track, or showing up early to set up tables & chairs.

Not only will you be helping the pack, but you will be getting to know other families, and setting an example about helping and volunteering, which is a large part of what scouting tries to teach - community service.

Cub-scouting can be a great experience or a lousy one. It all depends on how much effort the parent volunteers are willing to put into it.

And please always remember that the leaders in your pack are volunteering their time and energy to teach and entertain your boys.
 
Very good experience for me. In fact it's a running joke with my wife that I am always prepared for any situation because I was in the Scouts.
 
I promise to do my best
To do my duty to God and the Queen
To keep the law of the wolfcub pack, and to do a good deed everyday
DIB DIB DIB DOB DOB DOB

Was the chant we did around 1968 lol
 
Back when Michael Jackson was alive, he was in the cub scouts. He had to quit though....he was up to 3 packs a day.
 
I'm an Eagle Scout, and a committee member of an inner city boy scout troop right now.

I have to agree with skimple, for cub scouts it's all about the parents putting together a quality program. The program guidelines are a rough outline but to make it fun and worthwhile for the children parents have to get involved and make the experience exciting. When they graduate on to Boy Scouts proper make sure they find an active group. With my current troop we try to make sure we have one activity a month minimum.

When I was in scouting we(my pack and troop) did the bare minimum activities and I really feel like i missed out. I only got my Eagle because I got really involved in the OA and those adult pushed me hard to finish. I really enjoyed the experience overall.
 
I made it to First Class...but my once my scout master's son made it to Eagle (which had had a lot of help to advance through the ranks), the scout master got more active in his church and dropped our troop. I switched troops and the longer drives to meetings and new group of guys made it hard for me to stick with it.

I want to get my son involved when he gets old enough. (he's only 8 months old now)... It'll give me an excuse to get out and go camping, etc... That stuff is so fun. 🙂 I'll also want to be involved so I can make sure he's safe, etc... Things I learned from scouting was how to cook, sew, and do wilderness survival.
 
skimple said:
The boys will get out of it exactly what the parents put into it.
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^^ This. Go on the camping trips and find out what happens. Find out if the other fathers sit around getting drunk while letting the boys run wild or if the fathers are engaged to make it worthwhile. The experiences between troops can vary greatly.
 
Scarpozzi said:
I made it to First Class...but my once my scout master's son made it to Eagle (which had had a lot of help to advance through the ranks), the scout master got more active in his church and dropped our troop. I switched troops and the longer drives to meetings and new group of guys made it hard for me to stick with it.

I want to get my son involved when he gets old enough. (he's only 8 months old now)... It'll give me an excuse to get out and go camping, etc... That stuff is so fun. 🙂 I'll also want to be involved so I can make sure he's safe, etc... Things I learned from scouting was how to cook, sew, and do wilderness survival.
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This is a good example of why you should try to stay involved in the program if you want your child involved. This happened to my troop as a kid as well, Scoutmasters son got uninterested or aged out so he kind of stopped caring but would not relinquish the reigns.

It sucked too because there was a second father willing to take over but because our troop was falling apart at the time his son stopped caring and eventually he did.Be proactive about keeping the program running!
 
I was a cub scout up through First Class boy scout. I enjoyed the experience and I feel it did teach me things that shaped who I am.

I signed my 8 year old up last year, but I was very disappointed in our local troop. It was very unorganized, and an overall poor experience. It really turned my son off to the whole thing, and we decided not to join this year. He plays football, baseball, and wrestling, so he is plenty busy with other activities, and it was hard to fit scouts into our schedule anyhow.
 
Cub Scout, Webelos, and Boy Scout, like most boys growing up in the 60's (or so it seemed at the time). My dad was our pack leader through Webelos. I enjoyed the summer camps and the weekend outings.
 
I enjoyed being a cub scout. Did not have a positive boy scout experience and quickly stopped. It was far too lord of the flies-like.

My son in first grade is a cub scout and is mostly enjoying it. He likes the activities and we have involved parents. There are ceremonies and things that are quite boring for a first grader. I don't agree with a number of things in the scouts, but he learns good skills too and as long as he wants to go I'll support him.
 
Joined in 2nd grade so I'll throw in my .02.

Cub Scouts: Fun, had a lot of activities and such. I enjoyed it
Boy Scouts: Boring as fuck. More "work" than fun. This is the point where the religious aspect of scouting REALLY starts to get pounded into the mix. Also the normality of the other scouts really starts to go down hill. Cub scouts had basically every boy in school, Boy Scouts mostly had the weirdos, outcasts, and nerds.

I dropped out after 6th grade after spending 1 year at the Boy Scouts level.
 
BlitzPuppet said:
Joined in 2nd grade so I'll throw in my .02.

Cub Scouts: Fun, had a lot of activities and such. I enjoyed it
Boy Scouts: Boring as fuck. More "work" than fun. This is the point where the religious aspect of scouting REALLY starts to get pounded into the mix. Also the normality of the other scouts really starts to go down hill. Cub scouts had basically every boy in school, Boy Scouts mostly had the weirdos, outcasts, and nerds.

I dropped out after 6th grade after spending 1 year at the Boy Scouts level.
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Boy scouts never really got overly religious in my experience, but there was some thrown in to balance the curriculum. Scout camp had Sunday service and most of the meetings take place in churches because they have real estate availability during the week and sponsor troops.

I think it really depends on how wacko the leaders are on whether or not they make it about Jesus and bible beating or learning outdoors skills in the scout manual to advance rank.
 
TXHokie said:
I just had my boys joined cubscout. Wanted to see if anyone in ATOT was previously involved with scout and what you thought of it - good or bad. Definitely would like to hear if it helped you later in life. Looks like quite a bit of work for parent as well.
Click to expand...

I was in Cub Scouts & Boy Scouts. Definitely would recommend it. Unless you have a really active, outdoorsy dad who invests a lot of personal time & effort into you, scouts is the only exposure that a lot of kids get to a lot of outdoor stuff & "manly activities". Camping, canoeing, tying knots, all that stuff. Just recalling some fun stuff:

* Going camping, including snow camping & camping for an entire week
* Hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking
* Doing fundraisers to earn money for activities
* Canoeing, kayaking, and fishing
* Earning merit badges for lots of different things
* Shooting bows & arrows and guns
* Learning how to make a fire

While I do very little of that stuff these days, I'm glad I got the exposure to that stuff & had those experiences. I was super introverted when I was a kid & sometimes that's the only thing that really got me out of the house. Parental involvement is really important since you basically have to push kids to do everything, so it's some good together-time for families. The majority of Eagle Scout awards should really be awarded to moms, not the boys haha 😀
 
Scarpozzi said:
Boy scouts never really got overly religious in my experience, but there was some thrown in to balance the curriculum. Scout camp had Sunday service and most of the meetings take place in churches because they have real estate availability during the week and sponsor troops.
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Yeah, ours was at & sponsored by a local church building & we had Christian kids, a Jewish kid, and a couple of atheist kids. Wasn't a big deal, but like you said that probably depended more on the leaders than the kids.
 
mcurphy said:
I signed my 8 year old up last year, but I was very disappointed in our local troop. It was very unorganized, and an overall poor experience. It really turned my son off to the whole thing, and we decided not to join this year.
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This is how it went for my son, he joined in 1st grade. Local cub scouts is a mess, I was a den leader, but you I got no support at all. My biggest issue was begging parents to help. It was very discouraging that parents and grandparents would just drop their emotionally unstable kids off and expect me to babysit them. The boys that wanted to be there suffered because you couldn't do anything fun because of the lack of help and having to constantly work with the boys that didn't want to be there and would cause problems.

He was in scouts until Webelos started, but my son did enjoy it.
 
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