Girl Scout ?

[CarolA]

I thought this was against GS rules. GS used to be for every girls who wanted to join whether their parent helped or they could afford it.

This is where you get into trouble. You are right we are suppose to take every girl and to be honest I don't want the parents there. The girls tend to 'run to mommy' instead of attempting to do the craft/project on their own. My advice if you have a girl in your troop is that you and and the other leaders swap kids. For example, I was in charge of making sure my friends kid stayed on track. (Actually we did this after I pointed out that she seemed to expect much better behavior from her daughter then anyone elses kid!) ... And point out that there is no one here named "mommy" LOL!

However, it's a volunteer organization so you get some winners and some losers.

If you really can't find a troop, you can consider registering your daughter as "Juliette" This is not something I am real familar with, but my understanding is that these girls can still do all the community things and earn badges etc on thier own.

 

[sk!mom]

It all depends on the leader. DD9 was in scouts for 3 years and she finally decided that it was a waste of her time. They never did much of anything at the meetings. They did go camping but they never had much of anything planned on the camp outs either. It is inexpensive though and should be fun if the leader is good. We didn't pursue a different troop because my DD is involved in lots of activities and I was happy to eliminate something. She normally loves everything she tries.

It also depends on the council. The council events in our community were some of the most disorganized events I have ever attended. I have experience with boy scouting due to DS20 and the experience was completely different.

 

[PaulaSue]

I was and I loved it so I wanted my oldest to join. This is her second year.

IMO, it realy depends on the people. The first leader was so unorganized and even gave the girls expired food (MY DD has food allergies so I was worried about that issue too since she was not paying attention) 2 times that I found out about. I complained to council two different times and the woman in charge of the leader I spoke to really didn't seem to care. I kept calling to try to get it figured out and finally got ahold of another woman to help. She set us up with another leader and things have been great and the New leader is her leader again for Brownies. (I Actually ending up having Nicole quit Daisys but the new leader talked me into trying her troop. I am SO Glad I did!)

She had a GREAT time as camp for the week too.

Besides the bad road bump in the beginning the rest has lived up to the good experiences that I remember as a kid.

 

[zumbergc]

I tried out brownies way back in first grade. For me it was horrible, we had a horrible troop leader. We didn't do anything at all, except do crafts at this ladies house. My brother was in cub scouts and they had a great troop and did lots of things and he kept up with it until about high school. They would go do things and tour places, and we got jipped. So, it all depends on the leader and the org of the troop. Needless to say i didn't continue with it since it was boring for me.

I did do some things with the boy scouts in the middle school age range. I even got to go on one of the camp outs. Of course my dad was one of the adults helping out and i had my own tent. But at least I had a great time. I was a tom boy back in the day, and could play and do all the stuff the boys could do.... I was only a year younger than my brother so i was in the same age range as the boys in his pack.

You know how you get certificates and stuff for awards and stuff. I distinctly remember helping one of the troop leaders with the paper work stuff. I was signing his name on the certificate. Of course he didn't like it when i spelled his name wrong. Thats probably why i remember it, my dad doesn't spell his name with an h in tomas, but this guy did... ow well he should have been signing them himself then pawning it off to a grade schooler.

I guess its worth it to check out the troop, and see if more than one is an option so you find the best one for your child.

Connie