On the flip side I personally found the Scouts to be a safe haven for bullying that, when it happens to a child at the wrong time, will wreck their mental health for years to come.
Yeah, I agree that the Scouts can be a bad place for that kind of things, which is why I think it might not be good for all childrens.
(I had been a Scout for a few year and got a lot of benefits from it, but I know that my brother bullied a lot the younger scouts, so this is a real problem)
I help to run a Scout group in the UK. All adult volunteers receive anti-bullying and child safeguarding training. In my experience - bullying is not tolerated in 'these times'.
But for sure, do what you think is best for your kids.
Both my brother and I were scouts in France in the 2000s, so it is fairly recent, but the situation might be different to the one in UK, the organization and the authorities being different. There is not a strong emphasis on bullying protection (as far as I know since I never been on the organization side of things), perhaps because there are different priorities or because it is not perceived as being a widespread problem.
I don’t have kids yet, but I think that scouting is a good option. Still, the experience one child will have will vary wildly from one scout association to the other and one local organization to the other, mostly because it depends a lot on the people he will end up with.
Also congrats on your engagement ! I always had a lot of respect for those who helped run our groups.
