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Bobcat #8 --Child Abuse Requirement


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So what means do you use to get the Bobcat requirement on Child abuse completed?

 

Frankly, it's one I've delegated to parents, and one I think many parents find difficult to deal with. It's presented in a lousy way in the Cub Scout Handbooks in my opinion.

 

I can get through the other seven Bobcat requirements in a couple of meetings, but then find boys waiting weeks or months before getting parents to approve it so the boy can receive his Bobcat, and some parents never approve it.

 

One option I found at the Scout shop is a comic book that makes completing the requirement a matter of some shared story telling in a user friendly format.

 

I've also seen a DVD at the Scout Shop that might make it possible to play at a den meeting and consider the requirement completed.

 

I welcome any ideas on how to deal with this....

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It is not the den leader's place to talk about child abuse issues with other people's children, without permission (preferably written permission) from the parents.

 

Cub Scout criteria for completion is Do Your Best. Tell your parents it is up to them do Do Their Best, and discuss the very sensitive subject of abuse with their son. Tell them to sign off in the book when they have finished.

 

I have not had a problem when I give them a deadline, and tell them I want them to work on that specifically over the week, and bring the signed book to the next den meeting.

 

In the rare instance when the parents don't sign off, I simply let the parents know that I trust that they will have the discussion with their son when they feel comfortable. I then sign off on the requirement for them.

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Warning about the video, I had the Boy scout video & the cub scout video at one time, the boy scout one we saw first and it was fine. I was in shock when after that I watched the cub scout one and found it was much more frightening.. I don't know if the reasoning is they have to describe it in more detail with the younger ones to get them to understand, where as the older ones they already know so you are just reminding them to be on the look out for things that seem to be out of sorts, and pay attention to them.

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I explained to the parents that they needed to read the information and then talk about it with their child in as much detail as they thought appropriate for their child.

 

I had a couple I am pretty sure just signed the book for their son and did not go over it at all.

 

I had one though that thought it was presented so well he had all their kids sit in on a discussion.

 

I only had one parent out of maybe 15 (two dens, many years) that had to be told more than twice that their child could not earn the badge unless they did this. And that unless they did it soon, the child would not earn his badge when all the others did and might be upset about that.

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Maybe I just got lucky, but all of my Tiger parents completed it shortly after the first meeting.

 

It might have helped that I assigned additional "homework". We did most of the requirements at the meeting, but didn't quite finish. So the parent was responsible for going over the additional requirements as well. I handed out a newsletter showing what they had to do, but it probably looked less overwhelming, because it wasn't just "talk about child abuse". I forget exactly how I worded it, but it was something like this:

 

Before the next meeting, please complete the Bobcat requirements so that your son can earn his Bobcat badge at the next pack meeting:

 

1. Learn the Cub Scout promise (Tiger book, page ___, or see below)

2. Learn the Law of the Pack (Tiger book, page ___, or see below)

3. Go over the Child Abuse prevention material at the front of the Tiger Book with your son. (If you do not have a book yet, let me know and I can give you a copy).

 

Please let me know when you have completed these requirements, so that the Advancement Chairman can order the badge.

 

I heard back from everyone within a week or two that they had completed it. In retrospect, it was probably less overwhelming, since 2/3 of their "homework" was pretty easy. If they had been assigned only Requirement #8, then it would have been 100% hard.

 

Nobody took me up on the offer to give them a copy of those pages. But if they don't have the book yet, then they can't do that requirement, so it should be made available. Unfortunately, the only copy I was able to find online was in the middle of a 100 page document, so it wasn't very convenient to deliver it online.

 

I agree with others that this is one requirement the parents really need to do, and it can't really be done by anyone else.

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Are you telling me that parents are unable to read and comprehend the material in their child's TIGER handbook? Seriously, not up to it? I'm having a hard time swallowing that.

 

Some parents do not want to discuss this sort of issue with a 6 year old. I can sympathize with that. Consequently I would take an approach similar to that described by Mrw1 earlier in the thread. There is no way in the world that I would instead choose to have that discussion with the child in place of his parents doing it.

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Thank you moosetracker ---- I'd missed that post.

 

And Lisabob, I don't know WHY I have quite a high percentage of parents who take weeks or months to complete requirement #8.

 

The Tiger Cub Handbook has six pages of rather small, solid type describing the child abuse rules and program. The Wolf Cub Handbook has fourteen pages for parents to read then four pages of things to discuss with children.

 

It's a wonder people come back. I'm not surprised parents are put off with that.

 

There must be good solutions to this, but I still don't know what they are.

 

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BSA recommends that the DVD, "It Happened To Me", be viewed yearly by Packs. However, a parent is always supposed to be present. This is never viewed by just the youth alone.

 

The Power Pack Pals comic books are good, but again, do not do them without the parent present.

 

The parents do not put off the Bobcat requirement because they don't want to, or can't, read the book. They put it off because child abuse is a scary thing to talk to your young child about.

 

Take the time to talk to the parents. Tell them what the booklet is about, and why BSA feels it is important that they talk to their son about these things. Make them comfortable with it. Much of the information is also stuff that many parents have touched on with their children already. Don't talk to strangers, don't go anywhere with out telling someone first, don't give out any personal information on the internet, etc. This booklet just reinforces it. The actual Bobcat requirements are simply a few "what if" scenarios that they use to talk to their son about how to stay safe.

 

Let the parents know that they are free to handle it however they feel most comfortable, and to put it in words that works best for their son.

 

Be flexible. Don't hold a gun to the parents head. Explain that it is a tool to help them, help their son, and most will happily use it. For the few others, assume they have done their best, sign their son off, and move on.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's really up to the parents to sign off on it. Whether it's actually been done or not? Who can tell?

 

But I think the point really is... The BSA provides this information, and it's up to the parents to follow the directions and sign off accordingly.

 

If they choose to simply "rubber-stamp" this, that's their business, but they're also doing their kids a disservice, especially if something DOES happen.

 

But the same holds true with any home-based achievement - it's up to the parents to sign it off as "done" in most cases.

 

I think I can say with a certain amount of confidence that 50%, if not more of parents don't even PURCHASE a book.

 

We use Scouttrack for record keeping, so parents can simply go there to read a requirement... and sign it off from there.

 

Leaders can't do everything - there's still very much a "family" component to the program... which should be one of the reasons parents signed their kids up in the first place.

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When LisaBob said: "Some parents do not want to discuss this sort of issue with a 6 year old. I can sympathize with that. Consequently I would take an approach similar to that described by Mrw1 earlier in the thread. There is no way in the world that I would instead choose to have that discussion with the child in place of his parents doing it.", she was describing me as a parent and a leader.

 

1- My son wasn't ready in the early weeks of 1st grade to comprehend the sexual predator talk. We worked it in gradually over a couple of years.

2- Our parents spend a good deal of time and money to protect their children from the degenerate element in our society. They would rather drop scouting than be forced to scare the _____ out of their kids that young. Once the kids start to venture out of the parish for basketball games, etc; and are no longer under the direct supervision of a parent or trusted adult, then the sexual predator talk becomes relevant. (in 3rd grade...)

 

(Yes, we're a Catholic school. You think we don't watch those priests?)

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As far as I'm concerned, parents can soft pedal the issue as much as they wish. I make that pretty clear when I send out e-mail reminders reminding new parents that I need them to notify me when they deem that requirement completed and their son eligible for the Bobcat award.

 

PERHAPS I should simply inform/remind parents that I trust them to have dealt with the issues involved in ways they deem appropriate and go ahead and award the Bobcat based on that assumption. So far, I've required parents to tell me when they have completed the requirement in a way that satisfies THEM.

 

It just drives me nuts after a while.

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IMHO It takes a while to get the parents to crack open the books and be familiar with them. Then if their first task is something uncomfortable (child protection chat) thats a bit of a turnoff.

 

ditous said

 

"I think I can say with a certain amount of confidence that 50%, if not more of parents don't even PURCHASE a book."

 

Wow. This might help:

 

Our pattern as a Pack had been to send off the new scout parents to get the shirts and books at the scout shop. This meets lingering compliance, some boys with shirts, some with only half of what they need, and late books. Eventually it gets all sorted out.

 

But recently the new tiger den leader did a great thing. She did the errand to the scout shop for all the parents. Got the books and shirts. She even had a volunteer sew on all the required council, pack etc patches. Had them at the first den meeting and had the parents PRESENT them to the boys saying, 'now you are a tiger scout'. How cool is that?

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And for parents who don't yet have the book, it's on page 13-17 of this link:

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/ypt/pdf/46-014.pdf

 

When I went looking for this online previously, I only found it as part of a much larger document, but this one is only about 20 pages long. Even if the parents don't have internet access (if there's such a thing these days), it wouldn't be too difficult to print this out and give it to them.

 

And, as noted above, it looks much less daunting if you also print out the Cub Scout Promise and the Law of the Pack, and then ask them to go over all three of them at home.

 

You're actually assigning them more work, but it looks less overwhelming, since you're assigning two easy things and one hard thing. Psychologically, that doesn't seem as daunting as one hard thing.

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If you Google "Trail to Bobcat" you can find several little booklets that describe the Bobcat requirements in reasonable detail, except for #8.

 

When boys join the pack, their parents helps the boy put on a neckerchief and slide which the pack provides. The boy gets the "Trail to Bobcat" handbook which has a place for them to put their name.

 

At recruiting nights our theme is usually "Do Your Best" and we have a competition like a Rainhutter Regatta where boys assemble and race their boat, so they get an understanding of what we mean by doing your best and get that requirement signed off in their new booklet.

 

That gets boys off to a good start, but things still often lag BADLY in getting requirement #8 signed off!

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