Hello all.  I haven't posted here in a while, but I wanted some honest feedback from traditional Catholics.  My son is currently involved in Cub Scouts, the preparatory club for boys too young for Boy Scouts.  Now, our local pack is fairly conservative, attached to our NO parish.  The program is a bit vapid, actually, but it seems harmless enough.  

I have a few concerns about the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).  For one, they seem to have become so commercialized that the original aims of the organization have disappeared.  Secondly, I know the BSA has ties to Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ, which concerns me.  While they speak about being reverent and don't shy from taking some "conservative" stances, I don't like the fact that they're a nondenominational group doing these things.  I'd rather not hear about religion at all or that it be only Catholic, if you know what I mean.  Finally, the activities planned for the boys are really dumbed down.  I knew how to tie knots, go fishing, fire a rifle, whittle, etc. just by being with my dad while I was a child.  Now they talk about making food pyramid charts or other little activities which really teach no useful skills.  Of course, I do things (outdoors, woodworking, even cooking) with my son, but it's nice to have a program where he can associate with other boys his age as well.

So, do any of you have ideas for alternatives?  I am looking for either a totally secular (but not liberal) group that can involve boys in hands-on activities, or a traditional Catholic group similar to the Scouting program.  If my son is going to really get involved and stay in something like this for years, I'd like it to be a program that I can be proud of.  Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

What say you?

We had our boys in the Indian Guides for a while.  It was totally laid-back, Dads along at all times.  They would do clean-ups for the elderly, fix things, they had a really fun camping trip in cabins, and most fun for them were the shooting trips.  They got to shoot really cool weapons.  But I heard Indian Guides are a part of the YMCA?  In our case it was just a neighborhood group doing sort of useful activities on Saturday mornings.

Boy Scouts have just gotten too weird, IMO.  It depends on the individual group and its leader, but I don't know anyone who would leave their boys alone with a Boy Scout troop leader anymore.

However, it is still respected by future employers to have been an Eagle Scout, FWIW.

I don't know of any alternatives.  My impression is that Scouting varies quite a bit from troop to troop. Do you have time to get involved in your son's troop as a leader? That would put you in position to influence the activities he does.  Or, if you belong to a trad parish, you could start a troop based there.  

Any group activities for young people mean letting other adults have influence over your children, no matter what the group.  Even trad leaders might have ideas you disagree with.  The only way to avoid this is to get involved in the leadership yourself.

Quote from: Capt McQuigg

Staying home is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the Boy Scouts.

Thanks Cap'n, that was very helpful.  I can certainly teach my children anything they would learn in a club.  We could start a monastery too, and never leave the property.

 



Careful! Some members might take you up on that here!

http://Http://WWW.northstarexplorers.org

You would have to be willing to start your own troop.

 :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

This is probably what everyone is looking for!

Quote from: Capt McQuigg

Staying home is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the Boy Scouts.

Thanks Cap'n, that was very helpful.  I can certainly teach my children anything they would learn in a club.  We could start a monastery too, and never leave the property.

Capt's suggestion is quite valid. Are you "tongue in cheek" or having a go here? Just wondering.

From rereading the OP it seems you are looking for a "boys only" thing.
Is your son the only boy in your family?
You are not averse to putting him in a N.O. group?
Don't you know other fathers with whom you could get together to do manly activities?
Do you really need an organised group? Why not improvise and keep it simple?  

For what it's worth, why would a person have to associate or form an organization to learn how to start a fire, tie knots, stay warm, take care of one's feet, read a map, stay clean, handle firearms, etc.
And especially in today's society, why associate with persons that you may not actually be compatible with, or young people who, unfortunately, are being dropped off by the ubiquitous "single mom".
And then there's the legal liability end of it.
Our dad taught us, and his contemporaries taught their sons, and the boys associated together and camped together and taught each other, and all of this occurred informally in the small towns and rural area where I grew up.  Boys Scouts came from the big city.

Because we can't associate with children who are being raised by single moms.   This is unreal.

Thanks for all the comments.  I am unsure what I will do in my situation.  There are some complicating circuмstances, and I will eventually describe that in another thread.  The basic explanation is that my marriage has ended in divorce.  So, choices that were made previously with my "wife" are now in question.  That is a long story.  But anyway, my current mindset is to lean away from organized programs as a whole, and the reasons why are exactly what several of you indicated above.  

As I said, I did not grow up in scouting myself, and always had at least a slight disdain for the scouting movement, since it seemed artificial compared to my own upbringing (as someone described fathers naturally teaching their sons, along with other fathers whom they knew well).  

Through a lack of attention to "official scouting", I will probably let my son see that it can die on the vine, without having to jerk him out of the situation.  He will simply lose interest when we can do more fun things ourselves than are included in scouting.  For example, they (at least 'round here) do not let the scouts do much with firearms until they are much older.  My son already has his own .22 and .243 rifles and a 20 ga shotgun, which he likes to shoot.  That would never be allowed in the current scouting program here (he's 8 years old).