Another school year's come and gone. Another hot, sunny summer is upon us. For kids, that's pure paradise.
Summer means tons of free time to hang out with friends. It means trips to the beach with the family, playing baseball with dad in the backyard, or helping mom out in the garden. Of course, for some kids it means packing up a suitcase and getting shipped off for a few months to sleepaway camp.
No parents. No pets. No neighbors. Just a long time away from mom and dad under the supervision of some stranger. Personally, I just don't get it.
I'm not a fan of camp in general; it's just not my thing. I can certainly understand the need for sending your kids to a day camp if both parents are working. But I will never understand why any parent would want to send their kids away to sleepaway camp for months at a time in the summer. I don't even mean teenagers. I'm talking about parents of kids in first, second, or third grade.
Is it so mom and dad can go take a cruise in the Caribbean without any kids? Is it just so they'll have some peace and quiet? Some alone time?
I became a parent so I could be ... a parent. I want to be with my kids. I want to spend time with them, not ship them off for a number of weeks. They grow up so incredibly fast as it is. There'll be plenty of "alone time" when they're off in college.
"But the kids love it? They have so much fun!" Yeah, I can hear you. Settle down. I'm sure there are kids who love it. Just like there are kids who probably can't wait to get out of their house and off to camp just so they can be away from their parents for the summer. But for those that truly do enjoy it, were they like that on day one of their first year? Or did they just learn to accept it at first and then slowly grow to enjoy it?
And then there's the food. Everyone I've talked to that sends their kids to sleepaway camp says the food is terrible. Their kids say it's awful. The skinny ones don't eat and lose a ton of weight, while the heavier campers just eat carbs all day and come back 10 pounds heavier. That's not even bad parenting, it's "no parenting." Letting young kids just choose whatever they want to eat all summer is a recipe for failure.
As far as I'm concerned, the only good to ever come out of sleepaway camp is Bill Murray's classic comedy Meatballs. Any other reason is just an excuse to put parenting on hold for a few months.
Do you send your kids to sleepaway camp?
Image via Steven Depolo/Flickr
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Comments 65
i wouldn't mind it for a week or 2 but not for the whole summer. or day camp would be cool for them to hang with friends and stuff. but my kids dont want to go.
Wow i am betting that the author of this article, kid is going to be living with mommy and daddy till there in their 40's. Sleep away camp was awesome i wish i had gotten to go more then once. You can learn so much about your self and what your capable of when your parents are not around. Best summer i ever had was when i went to summer camp for a week. I learned how to swim and wasnt as shy as i was before i went to camp. It gave me the courage to try things that others said i could never do, like cheerleading, 4-H, join the military ext.
I don't see any problem with it so long as the kid is comfortable with it.
I went to a camp in Colorado (I live in Illinois) for 4 weeks at a time, and loved every second of it... I was at the girls camp, my brother was at the boys camp a 10 minute hike away, and we both had so much fun we called home and begged to stay for the next 4 week session. I got to go overnight camping with horses, rock climbing, mountain climbing, hiking.... I had more fun at camp than I had for the remainder of the summer. I actually cried when it came time to go home. This camp still to this day sends me a birthday card every year, and it's been 14 years since my last visit! If my child wants to go to a summer camp when he is old enough, I would do anything to pay for him to have that life experience. It's totally worth it!
I personally have never met anyone who sent their grade school aged kids, or any kid for that matter, to camp for months. Do camps like that even exist????
I sent my first and second grader to sleepaway camp last summer for 4 years. I do NOT hate my kids, and still had one little one left at home so it wasn't even real time off from parenting. Though one is insanely easy now. But I was ok with them going so young because they had each other AND my younger brother worked at the camp. But honestly they needed the time and they LOVED it. I am a worrier. I watch my kids like a hawk. I let them make mistakes but I am very protective. They needed the time to get away from me and be boys with other boys. To learn to make friendships without my constant correction. They need the time to be able to learn who they are!
I could never send them away for months. 4 nights was crazy hard. But sometimes its not about us, actually its never really about us anymore. I want my kids to grow up and be happy and productive people and I think camp is a great way for them to start to be more independant when we live in a place and time where I'm not always comfortable letting them have tha independance on a daily basis.
I HATED going away to camp in general but I did enjoy the camp I went to with a bunch of my friends for a week. Also, did anyone else notice he said months.....he's not talking about those of you that sent your kids away for a week.
My son's 15 now and has spent a week at Sleepaway camp for the past 5 years or so. The first was a wonderful Y camp near Reading, one of the oldest in the country, right near where the Gosselins live and he loved it. He now goes to Boy Scout camp and is there now and loves it. Last year he was a counselor. My daughter spent a few days at a camp with her school and didn't like it so she doesn't go. Stop babying your kids and hovering. They get to "rough it" and do alot of things they'd never do otherwise and get close to nature. Let them grow up and be independent and get away from the TVs and computers and ipods and ipads for a week or two.