What would Bear Grylls do?

If somebody had told me in advance that getting my child into Beavers or Rainbows would be so difficult then I would have put their names down on the waiting lists when they were still twinkles in their daddy's eye. I reckon I could get them into Harvard before I'll get them within a sniff of a woggle. 

When I was a child I always wanted to join the Brownies. I never got the opportunity to go as obviously my parents didn't really register that I was keen or they didn't care either way. Maybe it was lack of time or money, or both, I don't know, but I was always jealous of my friends trotting off in their little uniforms every week. 

I wanted my children to experience being part of these groups - to make new friendships, to learn some new skills and most importantly have fun.  My children are not joiners and it takes some effort to get them interested in an activity but both of them expressed a wish to join Beavers and Rainbows. In fact Beavers is the ONLY activity my son wants to do. I honestly didn't realise that there would be next to no chance of getting them into a group!  I duly stuck them on the waiting lists, in what felt like good time, at least a year before the age they could join but it was to no avail.

My daughter is coming up to age 8 and obviously past the Rainbows age now and well into the Brownies age - have we ever heard from the groups re the waiting list? No, never! My son, aged 6, has been on the Beavers waiting list for over a year and a couple of months ago I was told that he'd have a place in September. Now it has become apparent this won't be happening due to the parent of another child (not on the waiting list) becoming a volunteer and therefore queue-jumping.

Yes, yes, I know I could do the same - I could volunteer and do the same same level of queue-jumping but I am time-short at the moment (which is clear from the severe abandonment of my blog). I work, I volunteer at school, the children have various other activities after school and if I volunteered at Beavers then I'd have a childcare issue. Or I'd have to drag along my daughter who would NOT be happy about it. In an ideal world I'd love to volunteer but I'm juggling so many other things, and badly, that I fear it would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

I understand that there are massive waiting lists up and down the country due to a shortage of adult helpers but I can't help feeling sad that my children are going to miss out on this experience and am kicking myself that I never put their names down sooner, but honestly, I was meant to be thinking about Beavers when he was 2 years old? Really? I was still in a blurry sleep-deprived haze back in those days and after school activities wasn't something I had even thought about.

We remain on the waiting list and will be on the wait list for Cubs in two years time, by which time I'm pretty sure we will have found other activities to fill the time with anyhow.  

Are there any other groups like Beavers/Cubs that I am missing? My children aren't particularly sporty and have no interest in joining a specific sporting activity, but there must be something else out there for them?

I bet Chief Scout Bear Gyrlls doesn't have this problem.