Summer camp sign-up vent
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Anonymous
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Asian American here. I’m not sure why you are making this about race.
I’m a SAHM now so do not need childcare. In our circles, the kids do a lot of sports in the summer - swim, tennis, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics. When I was a working mom, we would sign up for camps with friends, sprinkle in an academic camp and then fill in with fun camps and vacations. Some parents put their kids in as cheap as childcare as they can afford. Some try to enrich them. Our friends all focus on kid sports mostly. Swim and country clubs are busy in the summers with swim and tennis teams. |
Anonymous
If they have multiple kids, they can probably hire a summer nanny for the price of camps. Maybe that’s what he wants to do? |
Anonymous
Lots of us that are on a budget do the rec camp at the school. Nice to know I'm being judged for it by people like op lol. Meanwhile my kid enjoys it and asks to do it every summer. |
Anonymous
Ugh, I am Asian and I had the same reaction as you! I really can't imagine why anyone judges the choices people need to make for their families, so I'm going to give OP the benefit of the doubt that she is just overwhelmed by the process. I have done both types of summers. I love the county park/rec camps because DC see a lot of friends from our neighborhood and make friends with other local kids that they sometimes encounter elsewhere. I also like that the county camps often act as a "sampler" to see what new activities they could potentially enjoy. That being said, multiple camps are really tough to coordinate transportation-wise. Also, as DC gets older, I feel more inclined to sign up for specialty camps to maintain the activities they do throughout the year. This year I am going to sign up for the required "block" of DC's big full service summer camp, and round out the summer with maybe one or two other specialty camps. |
Anonymous
Did you really not know that you were being judged by certain people for being on a budget? Do you live under a rock? |
Anonymous
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Op here. As I have clarified that it is not anout the camp price. I just happen to live in majority white neighborhood and that's just the norm that I have found out through my kids' school friends where they sign up for summer camps. I ask them every year. I am a foreigner. I never attended any summer camps in my life or attended public school here. I am trying to understand why the summer planning that DH (born here) and kids' school friends families have is so different from me & other school districts with majority Asians who are mostly foreigners. I want to understand the culture here and I am in doubt if DH is right that I am planning too much.
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Anonymous
People who were born here, were raised in more or less the environment they are raising their kids in, and who think they had a good childhood want to repeat that childhood for their kids. What’s not to understand? |
Anonymous
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Your DH is right, you're planning too much. Find a couple of camps that your kids will enjoy and logistically work for you. There's not need to stress yourself out for 10 straight weeks. The world will keep spinning if they're slightly bored or they're not receiving top level academic enrichment all summer long.
I think that's a difference. For most of us, summer camp is about childcare and fun. You and other foreign-born parents that you're familiar with view it instead as an opportunity to invest in your child(ren). And you can't understand why the rest of us aren't pouring the same money and resources into enriching our children. But that's a narrow understanding of enrichment. There's plenty of valuable lessons to be learned in a regular summer camp a kid attends for more than a week. And I suspect you see running yourself ragged taking your children here there and everywhere, no matter how inconvenient, as a marker of a parent who truly loves their child(ren) and wants the very absolute best for them. Meanwhile, most of us are asking "why are you needlessly torturing yourself? The camp down the street is lots of fun and easy to do pick up and drop off." Less time in the car, less stress for parents, more time with the kids, everyone is happier. My kid personally loves the two camps he attends. One is a typical summer camp that rents space from the church at the entrance to our neighborhood. Nearly all our neighbors do at least a few weeks of camp there. The kids love it. The theme changes each week so its not the exact same thing, and because so many kids both in and out of the neighborhood attend multiple weeks, they make lots of friends and can't wait to see each other. And we can't beat the convenience of being able to walk to camp! The other camp is at a skating rink; my kids loves getting to be on the ice for hours a day (and it does improve his hockey skills), especially with the older boys. He doesn't care that it's the same pretty much every day, every week--he'd happily spend the whole summer there if we let him. |
Anonymous
You're right OP! The whole neighborhood should adjust itself to you for summer camp planning! You should let them know how wrong they are for doing what works for their families instead of what works for YOUR family. |
Anonymous
Good luck with that. I have hired summer nannies and they are a PITA. I paid $22 an hour (this was a couple of years ago), but they spent most of their days on their phones, didn't take the kids anywhere and complained nonstop about the salary. The last one got to the point where I just ended it early so I didn't have to hear her complain about her low pay any more. She was 18 and my dds are very easy/fun. Funny thing was that one of them came back the next summer begging for a job because she couldn't get anything above $15 an hour as a camp counselor. I think they just had unrealistic expectations. |
Anonymous
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OP I think you would have gotten more useful responses if you had posed this more neutrally in asking whether parents prefer one camp all summer or trying different things, and why.
It depends the type of kid, their age, siblings, parents' work logistics, other summer activities like swim team, finances, etc. I am an Asian American PP but grew up here. That said I had a SAHM so I never did summer camp. A lot of things are "new normal" for people unless they grew up in the exact situation they're in now. |
Anonymous
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First few years were 90% BarT at Mountainside or Ranch, some times with special interests, with one or two specific camps (rock climbing, horse back riding).
She was fine with that - thenBarT moved drop off and pick up locations, they weren't as cost effective, and she was getting bored with BarT, so we mixed it up a bit. It was actually really annoying keeping track of it and there were hits and misses. On one hand, you have a husband problem- he sounds a bit whiny about parental responsibilities. But on the other, you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. I'd say do 80% BarT and one or two camps that seem interesting to them (or mix it up at BarT) and, assuming it's not impossible with his work schedule, make your husband do drop off or pickup. |
Anonymous
| Op here, my oldest one did Bar-T ranch & Bar-T mountainside before, and he is over it. He finds it boring because they repeats the schedules and activities week by week. A lot of camps he likes are 9am to 3pm which I hates the most and my work flexibility does not give me the flex to be able to do the full summer like that. I cannot afford multi weeks of sleepaway camp which is too costly. So for this child, I rely a lot of camp busing (if available) to different county/state or drive for 15 min to 30 min one way for drop off/pick up to get him to different camp locations. The other kids are too young to follow him like that, so they go to other camps. They have different interests. |
Anonymous
then this sealed the deal |
Anonymous
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I’m a white American, no cultural ties beyond typical white USA culture. When my kids were pre-k / early elementary, I mostly did the same camp all summer because it was easy for scheduling, plus younger children need a sense of stability. But the camp we used had different themes each week, different field trips each week, and they offered on sight “specialty camps” a couple times thru the summer (like science explorers or violin lessons) that we could pay extra for. As they got older, I used the same camp less and did more specialty / adventure / sports camps. It was a lot more effort with sign ups and changing routine for drop of & pick up, but I hope my kids enjoyed having different experiences. I think they enjoyed having different adventures… They did quite a few science and technology themed camps, music, theater, chess, climbing, martial arts, gymnastics, parkour, soccer, etc. I would say 75% of my white friends did the same as I did – same camp when young, mix of experiences as they got older. I don’t think it is unique to Asians to mix things up. Nor do I think one is “better” than the other. My kids would probably turn out the same regardless of summer camp choices.
The only thing my kids mentioned as they got older is they wanted the sleepover cabin summer camp experience like they see on TV. We never did that due to the expense of it, plus not trusting overnight camps in general. Strangers taking our children overnight was a hard no for us. |