I have tried to figure out how I feel about scouts for several years. Three of my boys have been through cubscouts and I've been either den leader or den co-leader. My husband refuses to get involved, so it's been entirely me--He does so many of the scout-like activities with his 4 boys (almost like having his own den) but doesn't want commitment of when and where and how, etc.--it has to be on his own terms. Maybe scouts is better for boys from smaller families, but it is really not a good fit for mine with 4 boys--if we're going on an outing, we all go. Completely impractical that they have different dens, different activities. I can't drive them to everything individually--They need to have families going through tiger, wolf, bear, etc.
As an ex-leader of cubs, I think it was too much work for too little gaim for me. I would prepare ahead of time and the boys didn't seem interested, preferring to have conversations while I was trying to talk to them. My older boys steadfastly declined to join boy scouts, even though the leader is a good friend and a great guy. I quit leading/co-leading cubs recently and now I have one little son (5 yr old) that if I sign up, I want nothing to do with it.
I've been told that boys scouts is entirely different and they are independent and parental involvement is much lower. But my older boys decline.
