Spouse Wants to Send DD to a Camp that Costs an Entire Month's Take Home Pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m doing it for my 2 kids. 3 weeks, $7500 per child (in Maine, too!). Not a specialty camp. Will be a months take home for me.

Totally worth it for so many reasons.

If you take home 15K a month you can make lots of high end choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes- it's one of those fancy NE camps with obscene costs. Which is also off putting because we aren't fancy or northern.

DD isn't special needs at all and is extremely outgoing/social who would do just fine at a 2 week overnight YMCA camp for $2500

At Y camp, my bunk stunk of Raid. The counselor sprayed it all over our beds.

[Anonymous]

I get it, I really do. I spent my summers going to a 5 week camp on the James River in rural Virginia. Honestly some of my fondest memories are from those days.

Give it to your daughter. These times are fleeting.

Old school summer camps will be a thing of the past. She'll be gone for college before you know it and if you're like me you'll find yourself crying in an empty house.

[Anonymous]

What is your spouse’s reasoning for wanting to send her to this camp? You are pronouncing it unreasonable and expecting all of us to get on board without providing any context, which makes me suspect you know that sharing the full details will cause people to disagree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your spouse’s reasoning for wanting to send her to this camp? You are pronouncing it unreasonable and expecting all of us to get on board without providing any context, which makes me suspect you know that sharing the full details will cause people to disagree with you.

Defensive much? Most people withhold details so they can't be identified, not to sway anonymous opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m doing it for my 2 kids. 3 weeks, $7500 per child (in Maine, too!). Not a specialty camp. Will be a months take home for me.

Totally worth it for so many reasons.

If you take home 15K a month you can make lots of high end choices.

Sort of. (My take home is closer to $12,500). But I’m single, no child support, and pretty financially conservative. If I lose my job, we are sunk. This is something I think is very important and willing to forgo other things to send my kids. I’m not saying I’m hurting for cash, buts it’s definitely something I have to budget to do and it’s still a huge expense when trying to also save for college, pay for a house, save for retirement.

Op, as someone says above, it’s the lack of communication around this than the cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes- it's one of those fancy NE camps with obscene costs. Which is also off putting because we aren't fancy or northern.

DD isn't special needs at all and is extremely outgoing/social who would do just fine at a 2 week overnight YMCA camp for $2500

If your concern is partly that the kids and families will be fancy, don't worry about that. There might be some, but there are a lot of families that prioritize camp to an extreme degree and/or the grandparents pay. Plus it's hard to really swan around fancily when you are living out of a trunk in a cabin.

[Anonymous]

Not worth it.

[Anonymous]

I sent my kids to camp in Oregon. It wasn't special needs, but it was a specialty camp. Two weeks at camp for two kids, plus flights cost a month's take home. It was worth it. Specialty camp was the only way I was going to get the oldest out of the house, and he desperately needed the socialization.

[Anonymous]

I'm with you, OP. That seems absurd. It baffles me how people around here justify things like this, as if their children's entire childhood will be tarnished if they don't get to do this. Some of you are in such a bubble.

[Anonymous]

Camp = 1 month take home pay = TOO MUCH unless this was something that was planned for (i.e., sinking fund/saved for).

If my wife came to me last minute and wanted me to pay for this I think my initial reaction would be a hard no.

When I was a kid I did a few 4H camps and scouting that were all less than a week. I also spend a week each summer at my grandparents house helping granddad around the farm. My kids get sent to their grandparents house as "summer camp" where they get to learn how to feed animals and cut grass.

Dude, I'm there with you on this being a ridiculous price. If, however, it was a small fraction of cash I already had on hand my wife might be able to talk me into it... but I'd prefer to see it being something my kid really wanted to do also.

Also, I my wife was a stay-at-home and there are no other kids I'd be wondering what she is doing with her time while the kid is gone. Maybe she is just looking to spend more time with her affair partner this summer without the kid around...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long is the camp? All summer long or 2 weeks?

3 Weeks and it's in New England and we are in Richmond. So getting there and back is another huge expense/time taker

Is it Explo? If so irs totality worth it.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I never had kids and I had no idea this was even a thing. I remember going to Ranger Rick camp for like a week when I was a kid but it was pretty low-key and had to have been inexpensive.

People spend a month’s pay on camp? Wow. Well, it must be an amazing experience for the kids. I’m not knocking it at all, just surprised this is a thing.

[Anonymous]

I know middle aged people whose closest friends are camp friends. Some specialty camps (religion, music, theater, rock climbing, diet-focused, etc.) are pretty incredible and sometimes life altering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I never had kids and I had no idea this was even a thing. I remember going to Ranger Rick camp for like a week when I was a kid but it was pretty low-key and had to have been inexpensive.

People spend a month’s pay on camp? Wow. Well, it must be an amazing experience for the kids. I’m not knocking it at all, just surprised this is a thing.

Sleep away camp is a big thing in New England. My kids started doing 4 weeks at 8. It is their favorite place on earth, they stayed on as counselors into college, and I think there is a decent shot that at least one of them gets married at the camp in a few years. (They so lovely weddings in the Fall.)