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this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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I was just considering getting my son into the scouts and this encourages me.
I seriously feel bad for your son if this is what causes you to force it upon him.
Better be careful talking in this thread will turn you trans.
Nobody is forcing anything he is going to do it if he wants to.
What a small-balls thing to say.
The horror of acceptance for others. Oh my god, please make it stop. /s
I think your local offerings can be a big factor. I grew up in scouts, loved my experience for the most part.
But talking with other people about their experiences can be a mixed bag. Each troop has its own priorities, the national Scouting organization gives troops a lot of flexibility on how they want to run their operation.
My troop, for example, was huge on outdoor activities. We had monthly camping trips, sometimes more than one a month. We did participate in organized “scouting events” as well with other troops, but that was sort of secondary.
Other troops are big on “scouting achievements” like merit badges, “scouting societies” like Order of the Arrow, medals and honors kinda thing, I felt like that would be a bit of a drag. But to each their own.
Definitely varies on area and by troop. Mine was camping or outdoors twice a month at minimum, and pushed to be very active in all the things possible to immerse scouts in scouting. It really felt like the ideal way for the program to be done.
The biggest downside was that drive to do more in proper scout led meant 80% of outings were messy figure out backpacking trip ideas.
Definitely helped shape my opinions on scouting as a trans woman who was barely able to stay in the program after coming out in time with the policy change.
Some troops are also very hostile to being accepting, and do their best to ward off any gay or possibly gay youth in the first place. So if that's a concern it is still relevant.
I definitely learned some pretty good skills in it, so I would personally recommend, though biased.
Learned first aid, fire starting, safe wood chopping, some decent enough regional wilderness survival skills, and had a good amount of fun along the way. Also learned gun safety in a very important meeting we had that probably should have been either a once every year meeting.
Oh dear firearm training, even at the most basic of levels is so under appreciated.
It really is.
As someone that went through this program, I can't stress enough that the takeaways here go far beyond marksmanship; the program makes sure of it. Because of merely attempting to get the Riflery merit badge I have a profound respect and safety awareness for guns, and all I used was a .22 bolt-action rimfire, which is about as basic as it gets. At the same time I'm aware that being halfway good at maintaining and using one are skills that must be cultivated and are not easy to do nor intutive. If I had to use a firearm now, I know that I'd have to use it at close range to be any good.
And unlike most americans (according to statistics) know that you should unload the firearm before cleaning, storage, or hiding in an oven. Its the main difference between the states and nations that require a firearms license. Even one day of training before letting people buy a firearm drastically changes outcomes.
Education is key in firearm safety.
Nobody scares me more at the range than adults who rent a gun who clearly have no experience. They're often simultaneously confident and dangerous. Kids at the range are afraid of getting in trouble so listen to people telling them how to be safe, but adults are the fucking worst.
Here in Canada we have that very issue with police at the range (my range had to ban them in groups). The mix of overconfidence and need to show off while having less safety training then regular people is a deadly recipe.
vet the troop carefully, but yeah, it's a good organization.
And listen to your kid if they say it's not what it looks like. My troop looked totally fine if you asked the Scoutmaster. It turns out it was just his kid and his kid's best friends who were all assholes. I got beaten up at least once, and eventually got kicked out because I pulled my knife on the Scoutmaster's kid, because he had pulled his knife first, and literally backed me up against a cliff with it. Dude was a psycho and eventually joined the Army during the big 2009 push (what a shock).
Mom insisted I go every week, it's not that bad, etc, and then literally had the stones to tell me "you should've said something" when I got thrown out.
yeah, i was in a troop with an awesome scoutmaster. who died. the next scoutmaster was okay but he moved. the one after that was an Uncle Touchy that i managed to avoid. my parents refused believe me when i told them there was something going on but they like burying their heads in the sand (they cultists).