girl scouts
 

Do any of you participate in girl scouts or brownies? Meaning your daughters, obviously. Why or why not?

Troop Beverly Hills didn't do girl scouts any favors. That was a horrible movie.

My daughter did. We supported her in the effort. We did ti for several reasons. First, she wanted to do it with her firneds. Second, we liked the group of parents and girls (we formed our own troop, or whgatever they were called; we were the only Momrons in the group, btw). Third, it was a good alternative, in our minds, to some ofthe more outward recognitions of boy scouts, which her brother was going through. Sometimes it was a pain, but no more than boy scouts, and on balance I thought it served her well.

Brownies are Girl Scouts.

I was looking forward to being a GS leader for my kids, but as it turns out I had two boys.

No, I don't have my daughter in Girl Scouts. And if it is true that they teach the young girls to have abortions, I probably won't!

It's part of the health-and-well-being badge.

My daughter's only four, but to be honest, we hadn't really planned on it. Not really intentionally, but we hadn't thought about it much. It is interesting that we don't encourage girls to go that way in the church, like we do for boys. I'm not sure why. I'm of the opinion that we should drop Boy Scouts and just make it YM and YW activities, but I'm probably the exception.

They do have Achievement days for the 8 yo girls. My wife was the leader at one time and she taught them how to build a fire with a bowdrill. But most of the leaders teach them how to do their nails, crafts, etc, so it's fairly lame. I think that's more a function of the culture than the church. I'd hate to be a woman in this culture.

My ward contains a mother who has started her own girl scout troop and included other LDS girls. She's a convert, and I don't know whether she was raised participating in girl scouts or not. I don't really know what they do (other than sell cookies), and it's the first I have known of such a troop in an LDS context. I also know another friend who sought out a non-LDS troop for her daughter because the older brother was invloved in scouts, and she thought Achievement Day girls was not even close to the same level of development and commitment to the girls.

And yes, Barb, I know Brownies are girl scouts. I guess I was under the impression that Brownies are to cub scouts what girl scouts are to boy scouts, but I could be wrong.

ER, I agree with you that it would be better for the church to ditch scouts altogether and do their own thing for boys and girls (I've posted about that here before).

And Mike, what are you talking about with abortions? Is that a criticism of girl scouts? I really don't know. But I guess if it's true it makes sense because if there is one thing groups that empower women like to do, it's underscore the importance of a woman's right to control her reproduction.

I'm not sure what the organization's natioanl policy on abortion is, but I am quite certain that the topic did not come up once during my daughters time in GS.

I bet Obama has a policy goal for girl scouts to have these kinds of classes from kindergarten on. . .