STOP Being a Helicopter Parent in Scouting and Let Kids Grow!

[@The_Bongo_Knight]

This is a very good video to share with fellow scouts.

[@JohnnyRep-u4e]

My BSA time (1977-1984), was in the Transatlantic Council, when my dad was in the Army. All the boys were Military Dependents, and all the leadership was Active Military. I thank God for that.

[@davidwilson410]

I was Scoutmaster of Troop 203 at Hahn Air Base from 1983-1985

[@JohnnyRep-u4e]

@@davidwilson410 - I was in Troop 128 in K-Town, Germany, and 200 at SHAPE, Belgium, if memory serves (a whole lot of intervening history). Did a Track meet at Hahn AB.

[@taleni9748]

This video does make a good point, parents can definitely be over protective and interfere with their children too much. However, I believe that in our troop this Scout Lead philosophy is carried a bit too far...We have one older boy who is quite responsible and tries really hard and he is trying to keep 6-7 much younger boys focused on the task that he is trying to teach them, and they completely don't listen. Sure, you have the majority that are having fun doing nothing but disrupting everything, but you also have some that are bored because nothing is being done and they are not advancing. Gradually those that care and want to advance stop showing, and the troop gets smaller and smaller. My point is that sure Scout lead is great, but we still need help them succeed, not just sit by and watch things degenerate into complete chaos time and time again. Mild chaos is fine.

[@ScouterStan]

I've always defined Scouting meetings as “Highly Organized Chaos”. The adult leadership must start mentoring this older Scout and helping them with their presentation and training. No youth joined Scouting to be stuck in boring meetings. They joined for the adventure! Meetings should always be thought of as preparation for the adventure. All the other stuff like scout skills, advancement, and leadership comes with the adventure. One of the big challenges in Scouting is having an active adventure-filled plan surrounded by, and supported by, weekly meetings. The classic default adventure is camping, but if that's all the unit does they're not fulfilling the needs of today's youth. You could probably sit down with the youth and come up with a list of at least 20 things other than just camping that are adventurous. When it's all said and done who wouldn't want to be a part of a troop that goes hiking in the mountains, snow skiing, snorkeling & diving, rock climbing, horseback riding, and trips to the beach. Now all that would take a lot of preparation, and that's what the “chaotic boring meetings” are for. I hope this has helped you refocus on adventure, instead of low attendance at meetings. YIS⚜

[@notlisted-cl5ls]

lololol wonder how many kids scouter stan has scouted........