I'm sitting here eating a Girl Scout cookie, and its making me wonder...

We you a Scout? Was your SO? Will you encourage your child(ren) to be Scouts? Why or why not?

Both DH & I were Scouts. He is actually an Eagle Scout.

We will definitely be encouraging the girls to become Scouts. I think its a great organization... good for friendships, learning things, camping and leadership skills. I might even consider becoming a Leader at some point. DH has also mentioned that he might try to be a Boy Scout Leader even though we don't have any boys.

Neither of us were scouts. I cant say that I know anyone who actually is a scout, it doesnt seem to be a big thing in our area. :dunno: I doubt our children will be.

I was a Campfire girl (very similar to Girl Scouts) and I hope Katie will join one of the two organizations too.

I was a Girl Scout and have very fond memories of it. I think I did it till I was in 6th grade. Chris was a Royal Ranger, and his memories werent quite so fond. Anyway...I hope Norah will be interested in being a Brownie. However, I am not so fond of the Boy Scouts.....after the whole issue w/ not allowing a homosexual den leader.....so I am not so sure. I would like to think that if Aidan & Elliott were interested, I would just let them know how I felt, but wouldnt not let them join.

I was a guide when I was little (Mrs Baden Powell's) and I became a girl Scout in my 20's. I entered being one of the guides of the little ones (7-10 year olds). Being inside I can recommend it first hand I have nothing but good things to say about Scouting. I witnessed how many of my kids improved in their family lives and in their schools while being in the organisation and I had the time of my life as well... I asked my nephew to join, he was having big troubles at home and the Scouts helped him a lot.
Of course I will encourage boy or girl scouting when I have my own kids, hoping they like it and stay for many years. Of course I wouldn't force them, I have also seen children who were forced to join and I can also tell it's not a good idea :nono:

I was a Cub Scout. I had a lot of fun, and I won the Pinewood Derby which is a huge deal in Cub Scouts - it was probably the highlight of my childhood.

For those who care, the Pinewood Derby is a competition where you make a race car out of a block of wood and then race them down a track. And the two things that made my victory really sweet were my brother and I did about 75% of the work ourselves and you could tell that a lot of the fathers made the entire cars for their sons, and more importantly, I beat my brother :)

I have mixed feelings about Joe joining because of the gay issue as Karri mentioned. I guess we'll see if Joe is even interested and then figure out what to do.

Dennis

I was a scout, starting at Brownies and going all the way up to the middle level (don't even remember what it was called, now!) I have fond memories of the ceremonies and the fun things we did. DH was a Cub Scout, and I know that he LOVED it. I would let Caroline join if she were interested, and DH is definitely hopeful to have a little boy to join Cub Scouts too.

I was a girl scout through Cadets, which is when my leader decided meetings would be held at her house so she could smoke...my lungs couldn't handle that so I had to quit. :furious:


DH was a boy scout forever...he needs like 5 more hours on his service project to be an Eagle Scout...he prefers not to share this information though since he's totally disgusted by the boy scouts recent anti-homosexual actions...he says we will not allow any son to be in boy scouts unless their views magically change...I agree with him to some extent...but I also think that just cause the organization has those views a certain troupe doesn't necesarrily agree...and well, girl scouts were just so great that I wouldn't want to keep that from a son...but from my understanding they are pretty different anyways.

Ohh, I SO want to be a girl scout leader...I wish there was a day of the week dh could be home with the kids from like 3-5 or whenever that I could volunteer with the local girl scout council, but I'll have to wait till they are older.

I am a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts. I earned my Gold Award (the equivalent of Eagle Scout). My DH was a scout too, I don't think he received his Eagle though, I can't remember.

I would love my daughter to become a Girl Scout. If we have a son, I would like to find a progressive Boy Scout troop. I not only don't agree with the homosexual problem, but they also don't allow WOMEN to be a leader after a certain level (I forget which one). However, Girl Scouts allow male leaders all the way up.

I was a in Girl Scouts for only one year. I think I was a Daisy. I really don't remember much about it.

DH was forced into Boy Scouts by his father. He actually calls the Boy Scouts, "Hitlers Youth" and he will not force our boys in Scouts. If they want to be we will let them, but they will not be forced like my DH was.

I wasn't a scout. Shawn was a boy scout for a while but never got that into it. He does have very fond memories of the pinewood derby, though!

We're not going to encourage Ciaran to join the scouts. I'm just really hoping it doesn't come up! Boy Scouts have to pledge service to god in their oath, and one of the characteristics that a scout is supposed to possess (according to the scout law) is "reverence." Plus there's the anti-homosexual stance of the Boy Scouts. So we're really uncomfortable with the thought of our child in such an organization. But we're not going to close our minds to it - we want him to have a say in the decision if it becomes important to him.

I don't really have a problem with the Girl scouts, the organization is much more tolerant. It does have "God" in it's pledge, but girls are permitted to replace the word with any other word that works for them. (:scratch: But I wonder how awkward it would feel to a young girl to say a different word than her friends. And what about girls raised in atheist families like ours? What are they supposed to say?) The fact that right-wingers dislike the Girl Scouts (due to the organization's approval of Planned Parenthood, its tolerance of homosexuality, and the fact that Betty Friedan used to be on the board of GSA) is enough to make me like the idea of Brigit being a girl scout! :aok: But I'm not going to push it on her or even tell her about scouting - if she becomes interested in it on her own, we'll discuss it then.

Well I guess my answer is YES..my children can be in the scouts. Tylor is a boy scout right now and loves it..He took 3rd place in the pine wood derby this year.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4dc04b3127cceb968abf8171a0000001610 (javascript:openSlideWin(1, '67b0de21b3c86c2625c0', 30);)
Tylor is the one on the far left.
He had his banquet tonight. He loves it and I think it is a great organization for him to be in.

I was a blue bird..which is also another form of girl scouts here in our town.

Jayne

I was both in Brownies and Girl Guides. I have very fond memories of it and if Emma wants to join I will encourage it. :)

I wasn't in girl scouts and my brother wasn't in boy scouts. We were in something called Indian Princesses. I don't remember what the boys group was called. It was a daddy/daughter group which was awesome! I don't rememeber getting to spend a whole lot of time with just my dad, so I think it was a really good thing. I would love it if we had something like that around here - I just don't know anything about it. I think if I had to choose one or the other, I might choose the one where the kids spend the time with the dads.

That said, I don't know anything about scouts, so no positive or negative thoughts on it.

I also am a lifetime Girl Scout. In fact, I ran into my leader that i had all the way from Brownies to Seniors just yesterday! I went on a Wider Op in the states every year from 6th grade on, and went on some international ones as well. I will encourage my girls to be in girl scouts as well. I won't FORCE them, by any means, but I think that GS had a very positive impact on my life, and I would love for them to have the same good times that I did. I think I would probably allow my son to be aBoy Scout, if he so chose.

My brothers were both Eagle Scouts and my dad was a Silver Beaver. I was also a girl scout through Junior High. So scouting was big in my family. HOWEVER, I will not let me son participate in an organization that is so discriminatory. Yes, they have a right to be as long as they do not accept public money or use publicly-funded resources, but I will not support the Boy Scouts again until they change. It's unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of good aspects to the Boy Scouts.

I was a Brownie and DH was a Boy Scout. If Liam (and any other children we have) wants to be a scout that's fine with me. I don't have strong feelings either way.

I was in girl guides from brownies all the way up to a leader of a sparks (5 yr olds) group. I earned the highest award (Canada Cord) and even represented my area at an international girl guide camp.

I will probably take my boys to Beavers.

I was a Girl Scout and have very fond memories of it. I think I did it till I was in 6th grade. Chris was a Royal Ranger, and his memories werent quite so fond. Anyway...I hope Norah will be interested in being a Brownie. However, I am not so fond of the Boy Scouts.....after the whole issue w/ not allowing a homosexual den leader.....so I am not so sure. I would like to think that if Aidan & Elliott were interested, I would just let them know how I felt, but wouldnt not let them join.
I won't encourage Boy Scouts if we have a boy for the same reason. I was only a Brownie, so I don't have many memories of that.

I was a Cub Scout. I had a lot of fun, and I won the Pinewood Derby which is a huge deal in Cub Scouts - it was probably the highlight of my childhood.
DH won 1st place too in the Pinewood Derby. He still has his trophy that he won. :)

I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout. I loved it. I would have no problems if Alexia ever wanted to be a Brownie or Girl Scout...heck, even a Daisy when she's real little. :)

I was a girl scout (just for brownies) and DH was a scout too. I have no problem with letting my children join either organization.

Neither John nor I were scouts. 3 of my cousins are (they are much younger than me) and in turn, Lexie (7 1/2) is now very interested. At this point we aren't able to commit to the time because of job changes, but I am hoping that we can get her signed up at the beginning of the next school year (in the fall). If Ashley shows interest in the future, we'll sign her up as well. :)

FIL just retired from being the registrar for this area for Scouts. Rick was in it when he was younger.
I was a brownie.
I am sure Dylan will start as soon as he is old enough.

No, but I was a Missionette for a few years. DH was a Royal Ranger for many years. They are bascially the Christian equivalent of scouts. We will definately encourage our children to be a part too!