I have two sons both 11 who advanced through Cub Scouts and achieved the AOL - they have been in Boy Scouts about 6 months ow - one absolutly loves Scouts while the other is ready to quit.
He did not initially want to join - having had enough of Cub Scouts - but I convinced him that the Boy Scout experience was competely different so he agreed to give it a shot - up until now he has been seemingly enjoying the experience, though he has never been very enthused with camping...
In keeping with my "once you start, you finish" rule, we both also agreed that if he did not find it to his liking once he made it through summer camp, we would revisit the issue (I never said he could quit).
As you can probably guess, he evidently did NOT have the best time at summer camp - according to the Scout Master, he was fine during the days - helpful and participating (though he did not do anything MB related) but at night he would totally break down and virtually demand that he be allowed to go home. I pretty sure it was not a homesickness issue, but rather a comfort issue (he likes his creature comforts - clean sheets & bathrooms).
While it is true that I would like for him to continue in scouts and achieve the benfits that have been mentioned in this thread, I do not want to insist that he stay in if he clearly does not like it. To be specific, he clearly does not like the camping aspect - which ties into virtually everything the troop does.
I don't think that I should demand that he stay it scouts, so reluctantly, my wife and I have decided to allow him to discontinue his scouting experience - we have decided on the following course of action:
1. I plan on having a meeting with our scoutmaster to explain what is going on.
2. Our son will have to personally meet with the scoutmaster and "resign" - explaining his position to the SM.
3. My hope is that when son #1 start going on more campouts and doing other stuff, leaving son #2 out of the loop, then son #2 may want to come back into the fold.
Is this the right thing to do? I feel that if I insist that he give it more time, he will start to resent scouts and buck every trend within -
Just venting and looking for similar stories an other options/paths that I could take...
Boy who wants to quit
in Working with Kids
Posted
Greetings all -
I have two sons both 11 who advanced through Cub Scouts and achieved the AOL - they have been in Boy Scouts about 6 months ow - one absolutly loves Scouts while the other is ready to quit.
He did not initially want to join - having had enough of Cub Scouts - but I convinced him that the Boy Scout experience was competely different so he agreed to give it a shot - up until now he has been seemingly enjoying the experience, though he has never been very enthused with camping...
In keeping with my "once you start, you finish" rule, we both also agreed that if he did not find it to his liking once he made it through summer camp, we would revisit the issue (I never said he could quit).
As you can probably guess, he evidently did NOT have the best time at summer camp - according to the Scout Master, he was fine during the days - helpful and participating (though he did not do anything MB related) but at night he would totally break down and virtually demand that he be allowed to go home. I pretty sure it was not a homesickness issue, but rather a comfort issue (he likes his creature comforts - clean sheets & bathrooms).
While it is true that I would like for him to continue in scouts and achieve the benfits that have been mentioned in this thread, I do not want to insist that he stay in if he clearly does not like it. To be specific, he clearly does not like the camping aspect - which ties into virtually everything the troop does.
I don't think that I should demand that he stay it scouts, so reluctantly, my wife and I have decided to allow him to discontinue his scouting experience - we have decided on the following course of action:
1. I plan on having a meeting with our scoutmaster to explain what is going on.
2. Our son will have to personally meet with the scoutmaster and "resign" - explaining his position to the SM.
3. My hope is that when son #1 start going on more campouts and doing other stuff, leaving son #2 out of the loop, then son #2 may want to come back into the fold.
Is this the right thing to do? I feel that if I insist that he give it more time, he will start to resent scouts and buck every trend within -
Just venting and looking for similar stories an other options/paths that I could take...
Thanks