To Cub or Not To Cub

Before Misha turned 8, I had been mulling over the idea of whether or not to start him in Cubs.  I had taken him to some pack meetings (I am currently cubmaster), and regularly took him with me to the scout office to pick up awards (he has a morbid fascination with the elevator in the scout office).  He seemed to enjoy it, even asking if he could go to the scout office and pack meeting.

I knew going into it that Misha wasn't going to get a lot of what they do.  I did want to see if he would enjoy the experience.  I am not worried about Misha's behavior; he is generally quite pleasant.  He does tend to wander as he is quite curious, so when they asked if he would be in scouts, I said that could work if he could be assigned a helper to keep him on task.  After a bit, they called two older scouts to alternate as his helper (to pick him up, take him to, assist him at, and bring him home from den meetings).  That lasted a couple weeks in November.  One of the helpers got busy with a team, the other just doesn't show up.  I would have used K. to help, but they decided to call him as a den chief with the other den, so that option is gone.

I sent him to scouts with K. last week but their groups didn't combine and Misha was there sans helper.  I got an email today from his den leader saying that, in short, Misha is great, but he needs supervision that we can't provide.  Now I am frustrated and disappointed.  I wanted this to work; to give Misha a chance at participating in "normal" activities.  I am not going to tax the primary with this problem as it is obvious that flakey teens aren't going to be there for him and the leaders are too busy themselves (I can empathize with that).

I could go with him, but this is when I get to make dinner between dropping people off and picking them up (when its not pack mtg night).  If Misha hated scouts, this would be a non-issue, but he seems to enjoy it. Replacing this activity with another won't work because, again, on this particular day I drop people off then make dinner, then pick them up.   In short, I don't want to "burden" other people with my special needs kid.  But even more so, I don't want to let him down.