New to cub scouting- Feeling a bit underwhelmed.

I'll preface this by saying that I was never a Scout; I'm 44 years old with an 8 year old daughter in Girl Scouts and a six year old first grade son.

My first grade son and I just joined Tiger Cub Scouts, with me as den leader. The Tiger Cub model of Boy/Parent teams for all first-year activities seems like a great idea. I think it will be great fun and offer good learning opportunities. I've scheduled the meetings for weekday evenings to hopefully involve as many dads as possible.

Unfortunately after spending the weekend going through online training and the Cub leader materials I ended up sorely discouraged about just how low an opinion BSA seems to have of children's outdoor aptitude.

I want to encourage every parent out there to believe that your kids can do almost anything, and work with them to achieve it. I agree with BSA that things need to be taken a step at a time, and that risk should be very carefully analyzed and managed. Still- to require that all campouts until fourth grade be "pack family campouts"?

On a scouting forum I was given encouragement that there are plenty of family camping opportunities and that younger scouts are encouraged to do hikes. Apparently Webelos has an "Outdoorsman Pin" that requires a 3 mile hike (at age 9 or 10). Funny, my son did many 6+ mile hikes at age 5.

I don't expect every kid to have been camping since birth like my son, or to have gone on his first backpack trip at age 5. Still, I really think that an organization like BSA could work a bit faster in the outdoor skill advancement than waiting until they're teenagers for the first backpack trip.

I will give Scouting a fair trial; I think the main reason to be involved is to build boys' character. The selling point to boys has always been the outdoor activities which seem amazingly limited. Based on my daughters' troop it appears that Girl Scouts get to do things a full two years (or more) younger than Boy Scouts.

Thanks for letting me vent.