Should I switch my daughter to Juliette?
My 9yo daughter who is about to complete 4th grade is kind, sensitive, passionate about books and characters she reads about, loves being silly, and is a serious empath. She picks up on everything! I think her empath skills will serve her as an adult once she learns to navigate people's feelings and moods and can separate herself from every shift in mood or slights against her. But as of now, she is very aware of when she's "in" with the group or "out".
She has been in 3 troops first was about 9 girls. All of them older, including 4 who were 2 years older than her. The younger girls were siblings to the older and had been in the same troop since Daisies. The second group was also mixed. Mostly younger girls and 2 older (her age) who were besties. This year a mom at my daughter's school started a grade level school troop, and asked if she wanted to join. Sounded great, but I didn't realize it would be a small 6 person group where 4 of the girls are besties and go on vacations and have slumber parties etc together.
Anyway, trying out 3 troops and still feeling like an outsider feels like that's an us-problem, not them. Last night my daughter told me she doesn't like her troop because the leader and the leader's daughter are mean to her and don't like her. Both have very sharp personalities. When they zero in on you being the problem, it is pretty harsh.
At a campout the leader's daughter told all the girls to line their sleeping bags up, and then told my daughter to sleep at their feet. They chatted past bedtime but when my daughter spoke, she told her to stop bc they were supposed to go to sleep. Then continued conversations with the other girls. They'll play and have fun and then suddenly she'll tell my daughter to stop. Nothing changed, she just decides it was fun, but now just my daughter needs to stop.
I started going to all the events and some of the meetings bc my daughter was having meltdowns.. I'm witnessing a lot of this behavior as well as seeing the way the leader speaks to her. It's just a lot harsher than the other parents or I speak to the girls in the troop.
Sorry so long. I have more examples, but I'll stop. I just need to know, is it better to gently encourage my daughter to continue so she can learn the skills to work with all different personality types? Or should I switch her to the Juliette program and just let her focus on her own journey with scouting?
If anyone has been through something similar I'd be interested in hearing your decision and how your daughter hopefully blossomed by staying in the group or going to Juliette. Thank you.