Feeling overwhelmed trying to start a Daisy troop
I’m looking into Girl Scouts for my 5 year old. I was a Brownie when I was a kid and remember it being a really fun experience.
We recently went to what was basically a recruitment event where the girls did a craft while the parents got information. The issue is that in my area there currently aren’t any Daisy troops, so if my daughter joins, it sounds like we’d essentially have to start a troop ourselves.
I started reading more about it last night and honestly got overwhelmed. Starting with no funds, organizing everything yourself, handling meetings, badges, communication, cookie sales, etc. feels like a LOT. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the structure, but it also feels like there’s very little built-in support.
My brothers were in Boy Scouts in the 90s, and from what I remember there was more of a larger organization structure. There were packs sponsored by community groups like Kiwanis or Elks Lodges, multiple leaders involved, and smaller dens within the pack. It seemed like responsibilities and resources were shared more instead of falling almost entirely on a couple parents.
Reading posts here about burnout and lack of parent participation honestly made me even more nervous. It kind of feels like so much of the responsibility ends up falling on one or two moms. I know people say “Girl Scouts is what you make it,” but it also seems like the lack of overall structure can make it hard for leaders to succeed, and even hard for girls to join in the first place when families are expected to create a troop entirely from scratch.
Am I misunderstanding how Girl Scouts actually works? Is starting a Daisy troop really as overwhelming as it seems at first?