Post by verypunny on Sept 11, 2012 14:52:33 GMT -5
My son is in 1st grade and Tiger scouts is being offered. He is athletic but so not competitive that he does not like team sports. He did T Ball when he was in Pre- K but did not want to do it again. This is the first thing that has come up that might be his "niche" and I dont want to take that away from him. All of his friends are into football in the like so he feels left out.
I am against the stance that the Boy Scouts of America has on homosexuality and I want him to grow up being accepting to everyone. I know we can encourage this at home especially since we have many family friends and relatives that are gay so he has exposure to that lifestyle. So would you let your son join?
I'm so torn on this issue. I like everything the boy scouts do except the homosexuality stance. It is made harder because the parents of the boys we know who do it are some of the only democrats in our area. I think it would be a wonderful experience for my son with ASD but I still haven't signed him up.
Post by ringstrue on Sept 11, 2012 15:02:08 GMT -5
its really hard for me to say that I'm not going to give my kid X experience because of politics that her troupe-mates and leaders aren't involved in and probably don't care about anyway. So in that sense I would say, sign him up.
4-H clubs start cloverbuds around that same age. Could you go that way?
Post by verypunny on Sept 11, 2012 15:11:44 GMT -5
I went to the info night and the men running it seemed really cool and nice and there was a woman there that is one of the leaders. They said both parents are welcome to every event along with siblings (even overnights)
Post by MrsAxilla on Sept 11, 2012 15:16:41 GMT -5
Ug! I don't know! I mean, my answer is NO! But Ben came home the other day and went on and on about how the little girls in his class were invited to join Girl Scouts and if there's such a things as Boy Scouts, he wants to do that! "Is there such a think as Boy Scouts, Mommy? I want to be a Boy Scout!"
I played dumb, but honestly I don't know how I'll respond when it comes up for real. I think I'll emphasize that only the Girl Scouts sell cookies, since that seemed to be the main selling point for him.
Post by Kristinmo on Sept 11, 2012 15:28:00 GMT -5
DH and I had this discussion a few weeks ago. He was an eagle scout but is horrified by the gay stance the national leadership has taken. We decided that if DS wants to do it and we can find a good local troop. We will not be actively encouraging it.
Post by msmerymac on Sept 11, 2012 15:49:27 GMT -5
Probably not.
My husband, the Eagle Scout, has said that he would be perfectly happy helping out with some kind of sports league, such as youth soccer, as long as that was of interest to any of our children, rather than scouts. And I'm sure we'll do hiking and camping on our own, since those are some of my husband's interests.
Post by laurenpetro on Sept 11, 2012 15:55:30 GMT -5
ugh, i don't know. i HATE what they stand for but i think there can be good things that come from it too. my BF from when i was a really messed up kid eventually became an eagle scout and that guy literally saved my life. it's hard for me to harbor animosity towards the group that made him into that guy, KWIM?
Post by EloiseWeenie on Sept 11, 2012 16:44:04 GMT -5
Yes, but I live in a place where there aren't many options for activities. My neighbor and his son were active before they had to move, and I respect them a lot- so I figure the troop is a good one.
Check out the local troop/den that he might join. They vary a lot.
Yeah. I would have said no. But then my boss told me that his son came home from school with info about Boy Scouts and in the info it said that their den strives to welcome everyone, include everyone, etc... It was an obvious "we're the lib scouts" kind of statement. This made me think of it kind of like Church. 9/10ths of it is finding the right "parish."
Post by meshaliuknits on Sept 11, 2012 17:07:18 GMT -5
Probably not. I realize that individual troops may be different or more tolerant than what the governing body's stance is. But I'm not comfortable with giving the appearance of supporting a group that wouldn't accept me (atheist) or several members of my family (atheist and/or gay).
Post by heightsyankee on Sept 11, 2012 17:09:22 GMT -5
I'm also married to an Eagle Scout. My ILs are also very involved in Scouting. My mother was a professional GS and my FIL is a Silver Beaver. All of this in to consideration, no. We will not be enrolling our kids in Scouts.
I used to have the whole "It depends on the troop" mentality because the anti-gay stance had not yet been officially adopted but when they made the official statement this year, that changed for our family.
Post by lyssbobiss, Command, B613 on Sept 11, 2012 18:53:25 GMT -5
It would be a discussion. Obviously XH and I would have to agree whatever decision is made. If it's a situation where the den is totall drinking the national kool-aid, then hell no. If the den is more chill, and really more importantly for me, if it's going to be a situation where he's the only one of his friends who isn't in it and would feel left out, then I'd want him in. *Hi, my name is lyssbobiss, and I was kicked out of the girl scouts in the second meeting and was very lonely when all of my friends had events I couldn't participate in.*
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
Honestly it's not ruled out. I saw what scouting did for my oldest brother and his self esteem - I think it got him through middle school and HS honestly - he is an Eagle scout - so as much as I'm opposed to the overall organization I just can't feel like I can rule it out, especially if DS shows an interest.