Anyone's son involved in Cub Scouts

[lishie]

DS1 is going to be starting first grade this year. Recently he's been expressing interest in Cub Scouts (and prior to this baseball and karate).

He seems to be more interested in scouts than the other activities though, so I found a local group that's based out of the church where we belong.

I talked to the leader, and it sounds like a great group, but there seems to be a lot of activities and involvement.

How much commitment is a year of cub scouts? I don't want him to join and drop out, but I want to know what I'm getting involved in.

The man I spoke to made it sound great and not overwhelming in any way, but as a leader, he seems all in with the scouts, i'm interested in other perspectives on this

[glinda]

I know cjeanette has a son involved and there are a few others I've seen around too. I had friends and my brother was in BS and he always enjoyed it a lot.

[cinco]

DS's group has a meeting once a week, and then as many as 1-2 extra activities a week. The extra activities are all voluntary though. We tried to make one a month. There is hiking, fishing, biking, safety courses, derby races, sports games, community service. Lots of fun stuff! DS loves it. I think it is a ton of work for group leaders (at least for a very active club), but it wasn't at all for us.

[auntie]

DS did cubs and boy scouting from 1st until he turned 18.

I'm still active as our district PR person so I visit many of the different units and have a sense of what is typical here. It's hard to make generalities, but Cubs is generally a pretty easy commitment. First grade Tigers usually meet once or twice a month as a smaller Den and then once a month for a Pack activity like Pinewood. Our Pack also did a monthly outing to a children's movie at our historic town theater, a minor league baseball game, etc. DS's unit was pretty quiet over the summer, maybe they'd camp out on a battleship or local park. The older WEBELOS tend to meet every other week or even weekly; they often tag along with the older boy scouts.

Most Cub Packs are very family friendly, parents are encouraged to participate and siblings are generally welcome to tag along in many units. DH and I met some wonderful people scouting- some of our favorite people came to us through scouts. For DS it was a positive experience all around.

The BSA stance on gays and atheists pains me. But, IME as an adult leader at the unit and even district level, this really isn't something that comes up. Most of the adults I know at district and council level expect this nonsense to go away sooner rather than later.

[barefootcontessa]

My older boys are both in CS. The degree of time commitment depends a lot on the pack. And even then most activities are not mandatory. There are specific activities the boys need to complete in order to earn their rank badge and typically boys work on those in their den meetings. Our pack has den meetings 3 times a month and pack meetings once a month. Our pack strives to have all the boys finish their achievements by February. My older son attended most of the fall and winter meetings but then tournament baseball came around in the spring and he was not there much. It was not a big deal. I just let the den leader know.

What I really love about scouts is that there is something for every boy. It is not just sports. There is camping, arts and crafts, nature stuff, etc. It has been really great for my son who does not enjoy sports.

[cjeanette]

In our pack the involvement is as much as you want it to be. There are monthly Den meetings and then typically bi-weekly pack meetings. There are camping or other events they do as a pack or a den but I have never felt bad about C having to miss something due to a sporting event.

He has always been in at least 3 activities at once and Scouts was always the least of my worries timewise.