You sound like you’d be involved. Great, your kids probably won’t do scout stuff you don’t like because you’ll be planning it. The tradeoff is that if you don’t help plan, you don’t get to kibbutz and I’m not bitching at you, I’m mocking your post. Because it was dumb and you can qualify it all you want, it’s still dumb.
And, depending on how the troop funds itself, maybe zero of the troops cookie money is going to Build a Bear.
About one third of my troop funding is from cookies. About one third of it is the girls dues. The last third has been from my own pocket - we sometimes hit up the other parents, but since I have one disadvantaged girl, I try not to do that too often.
And there are lots of expenses - The girls’ sashes (that should be a parent expense, but my parents can’t get their acts together). Badges and award pins. The books for the year. Craft supplies. Small gifts and snacks for when we visit the memory loss home we partner with. Winter Encampment. Bowling. Food shelf donations.
So if you don’t feel comfortable with your .50 a box supporting bowling, let my Scouts know. I'll be happy to earmark your .50 to awards or community service.
When I “think” about the money, I think in terms of the dues funding the “troop business” of badges and materials, and the cookies funding the fun stuff. But it really doesn’t make any difference to me.
I think you mean kvetch. At any rate, you might mean kibbitz, but you don’t mean kibbutz because that is not a verb.
As far as the topic, I think a lot of this has to do with the way so many people just don’t think girls matter. Someone way upthread said that Girl Scouts benefits itself, by trying to guide and inspire girls/teenage girls. But so many people seem to think that GS should only benefit others. Because without charity, it’s just a bunch of girls, and what good is that.
How utterly ridiculous. If the girls had gone on a camping trip that would have only been for them and I can’t imagine too many people complaining about it. Do you think a spa day will “guide and inspire” girls? Do you think that the mother who initially complained, whose daughter nominated “build a bear”, thinks they are just a bunch of girls so why waste money on them?
If you honestly think the root of all this is that girls are 2nd class citizens, I don’t even know what to say. Seems cynical and paranoid to an unhealthy degree, imho.
I don’t think GS should only benefit others, and I doubt other people do either. How does going to GS camp and learning how to ride horses, shoot a bow and arrow, and tie various knots help other people? It doesn’t, and yet people have said nothing bad about GS camps or camping.
There may be some “anti-girly girl” sentiment. A spa day for eight-year-olds? For reals? Even if it’s just a Princess Party (back when I was a kid, we called this “playing dress up” and it was free), it does sound a bit superficial. HOWEVER, let’s say the girls voted for having a movie party, with cake and punch and all the Disney classics. It’s not the same thing, but it’s just as superficial. And I don’t think people would be as opinionated about it.
Someone should start a “Share your Girl Scout memories” thread. I was a GS for two-three years. One reason why I didn’t like it was because it had few “let’s just have fun!” moments–everything had to be meaningful. But I did like GS camp. I wish my mother had sent my sister and me to GS camp every summer, instead of just that one time.
There is definitely an anti-girly sentiment going on here. Which is a real shame. As I said, my misfits could use a little push towards self care and girliness. For them, discovering that they are pretty is going to be a life skill of infinitely more use than learning to light a campfire.
Also, at eight there is a limit to what you can do with the girls. In most troops eight year olds and their leaders aren’t ready for tent camping. I was a girl scout and when I was a Brownie, camping was troop house camping - just like it was for my Brownies. Tent camping happens more when the girls are ten and eleven. They don’t want eight year olds dealing with campfires or matches (which means its a LOT more work for the leader to tent camp - as functionally the leader is going to be setting up the camp for the girls, lighting the fires, doing the cooking. A troop house with eight year olds is way easier - no tents to pitch, a fireplace or firepit outside for a fire, but a stove and oven for cooking - which means you can let eight year olds do some of it.
The move towards “over protective parenting” has impacted GS a lot. A lot fewer parents send their girls to camp. Overnights with first and second graders, even if you schedule them, are sparsely attended - and it isn’t the girls, its their Moms. Its really hard to find anyone in the Twin Cities that will put a girl younger than ten on a horse, and even then, it isn’t trail rides, its being led in a corral. The organization wants as many girls to be girl scouts as possible - and if Scouts = Camping there are a lot fewer girls benefiting from the other activities GS does. With eight year olds, I’m willing to bet for every parent who doesn’t like a spa day, there is a parent who finds the idea of hauling her daughter two hours away to a camp she hasn’t seen for a weekend to be far too frightening to agree to.
(It also takes about twenty hours of training before a leader is qualified to tent camp with her girls - its rare to get all that training done in one year - most leaders aren’t ready to tent camp with their girls until the girls are ten).
I also think this hairstyling/dance/fun day benefits the girls themselves more than the movie party. If these girls are anything like my 8-year-old, they would be watching the Hannah Montana or Suite Life on Deck movies and idolizing other, perfect girls rather than getting any instruction in caring for and appreciating themselves. (That said, my girl did go to a birthday party like this event once, and picking her up was a trip. She is staunchly anti-girly girl in anything involving her own clothes and personal care, and seeing her with a sparkly fake hair extension and makeup killed me. She didn’t even clip her seatbelt before she was begging me to remove all traces of the Horror of Femininity that she had been exposed to.)
Yeesh. 'Scuse me while I go scrub my brain.
OTOH, the spa day as described by the OP in post #30 sounds to me like a fine way for a group of 8 year old girls to have a great time.
Sure. It’d be great for a birthday party. People just tend to expect more out of an organization dedicated to guiding and inspiring girls. I see also in post #30 that some of the other groups are going on a shopping spree. That’s utter shit, imho.
Meh, as some of the actual scout leaders have said, you have to have that kind of stuff to get some kinds of girls to stay involved.
My daughter thought scouting would be fun - I’ve emailed the organization twice via their website to ask how to join. I also asked how one starts a troop seeing as her school has none. It’s been over 4 weeks and not a response.
But come on, you’re not also defending the shopping spree are you? “Hey kids, join scouts! You can buy toys!”.
To be honest, given A) that they’re working hard selling an actual (And good) physical product, and B) they’re spending a fraction of their income from that sale on rewarding the girls what did the selling, I don’t actually care.
Well clearly it’s a changing world. And Girl Guides have changed, for better or worse is for everyone to decide for themselves. If the leaders feel that Build a Bear, Spa Days, and Shopping for toys are the only way to keep girls involved, I think they will soon find the only girls involved are exactly that type. I would posit that the parents of those children aren’t seeking ‘guidance’ in the sense of previous generations, just glorified babysitting. Maybe that is what people want now. A lot of people seem to be disappointed that it’s not what it once was.
Time will tell, I suppose, as with all things.
I want to thank the OP for opening the eyes of many of us, as to how GG’s have changed. I don’t like their cookies, so when they try to sell to me, I just give them some money instead. I don’t think I’ll do so, in future. It’s clearly not going to support the sorts of activities I believed my donation was supporting. It’s just not my cup of tea anymore, different strokes for different folks and all.
It’s been an interesting discussion of differing views and expectations, I found it very revealing. So thanks OP, I think you did teach a lot of people things they didn’t realize.
I have to admit though, the title, “You don’t like it, you be the Brownie leader!”, sounds like a six year old on the playground taking their ball and going home in a snit. Yes, I get what you meant, but it just sounds somewhat petulant and immature, is all. Still, it was an interesting conversation, notwithstanding.
This is all so ridiculous. Where are you people getting that the only thing the troop is doing is spa days? It’s one thing that they’ve done amidst all the other stuff that they also do. Good grief.
It is also amusing to me to read this:
…from the person who, earlier in the thread, said that she would be so outraged by a spa day that she would immediately pull her child out and refuse to let her participate.
Of course you’re entitled to feel whatever you like. But if you’d read the whole thread you’d know I clarified to say, I meant I’d yank my kid for that event, I wouldn’t bitch or start a letter campaign, or judge anyone who likes the event, just not have my kid there that day. But thanks for playing!
I think paragraphs like this explain why I have apparent trouble with comprehension when reading your posts. The rest was an expression of your thoughts on the situation in general, but this section seems unnecessarily judgmental and harsh toward the OP. Almost as if you have to have a dig at her, while attempting to maintain the high ground?
I’m sure that’s not the intent as the rest of your post was the exact opposite. But, yeah, when I read a paragraph like this I can’t help but think the purpose here is to hint at the OP being petulant/immature/having a snit which seems unnecessary if one aims to have a civil discussion, which seems to be your thing. shrug
No, I read that part too.
Which would be a valid point if that was all they did all year. Jesus Christ, it’s ONE activity that they will be doing exactly ONCE the entire goddamn year. How is this so hard to comprehend? Seriously.
For the ENTIRE REST OF THE YEAR, they will be doing all the wholesome activities people normally associate with Girl Scouts. They will camp and hike and do crafts and perform community service and all the other things associated with badge work. All of which will be funded by a combination of cookie proceeds, dues, and the leader paying out of pocket.
Let them play dress up one time.
Sorry, I thought this covered it. Perhaps I should have said, ‘it brought to mind a child on a schoolyard’? No snark intended, just a remark on the title of the thread, truly. Which I found out of keeping with the nature of the topic and discussion, clearly that’s just me though. Point taken, my bad.