How to explain to kids suspending their activities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your 8 year old is not a babysitter. The county has low cost camps.

Do you know that some people still can’t afford even low cost camps?

[Anonymous]

Teach them who President's Musk and Trump are and what they are doing to Americans and poor people overseas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8 year old is not a babysitter. The county has low cost camps.

Do you know that some people still can’t afford even low cost camps?

NP. I know that, and that means an ADULT needs to not work in order to watch their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8 year old is not a babysitter. The county has low cost camps.

Do you know that some people still can’t afford even low cost camps?

NP. I know that, and that means an ADULT needs to not work in order to watch their children.

Since the adult will need to work if the kids are going to have things like “a house” you’re going to have to be judgmental elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8 year old is not a babysitter. The county has low cost camps.

Do you know that some people still can’t afford even low cost camps?

NP. I know that, and that means an ADULT needs to not work in order to watch their children.

Since the adult will need to work if the kids are going to have things like “a house” you’re going to have to be judgmental elsewhere.

OP presumably was using camps until now, so this is actually just a budgeting issue. If affording those camps means they are now worried for their house, that's a bigger problem of their own making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who will take care of them if you are still working in the summer? It's hard to find last minute slots if camp

It just depends where you look. City recreation camps always have spots while the fancy ones a private schools fill up immediately. I wouldn't worry about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who will take care of them if you are still working in the summer? It's hard to find last minute slots if camp

We work from home. The 8 year old is going to have to mind the 5 year old. And honestly, even if we are still working in the summer, I'm not sure we are going to be out of the woods.

I didn't think you were a troll until I read this. Nope. Not true.

[Anonymous]

My kids are older ES and since their activities (sports and scouts) are important to them, we are cutting in other areas to keep their lives normal (one of us is already unemployed, the other one may be unemployed in the near future). It's important for them to keep active and they play rec level sports, so it's a couple hundred dollars, nbd. We did sign up for camps with low cancellation fees so that if we don't need camp this summer, we can cancel them without losing much money.

[Anonymous]

You might want to look for 13-15 year olds who will work for $7-15/hr (depending on neighborhood) to do crafts with your kids, play games. Take them to playground etc. mine did this during 2021 when so many camps were still closed and made enough to buy herself a new iPad and Apple Watch so she was thrilled. Cheaper than sending two to camp! Most kids under 26 can’t get “real” jobs but feel like they are too old for camp.

[Anonymous]

The only reason I think this is a troll is because she makes no sense. OP is suspending all activities including summer camp over the concern that she and DH will lose their jobs. Which is valid. However her summer plans involve the 8 yo watching the 5 yo at home because the parents have WFH jobs. The same jobs that she's so afraid of losing that she's not sending them to camp. What happens if the only jobs she and her DH can get are out of the house? They can't leave the kids alone. Or will one parent just not work? In which case it's probably costing them more to have a parent without a job than it would to send the kids to camp.

So either she's a troll or she hasn't thought things through at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t have the money for extras right now.
We have money for our house, food etc. but we’re taking a break from spending so we can save up.

Tell them about things you’ll do instead. Picnics, hikes, check out new playgrounds etc….

This. I actually think 5 is too young to tell this too, just don’t do the activities. 8 is borderline.

This. I have slightly older kids. I told them we're stopping activities x and y and vacation plan x and y, but that we will replace it will fun activity x and y and more leisure time and home (which is actually something they wanted anyway).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 8 year old is not a babysitter. The county has low cost camps.

Do you know that some people still can’t afford even low cost camps?

How did they afford daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might want to look for 13-15 year olds who will work for $7-15/hr (depending on neighborhood) to do crafts with your kids, play games. Take them to playground etc. mine did this during 2021 when so many camps were still closed and made enough to buy herself a new iPad and Apple Watch so she was thrilled. Cheaper than sending two to camp! Most kids under 26 can’t get “real” jobs but feel like they are too old for camp.

This may have worked before teens started getting addicted to their phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew a mom who would run a camp at home for a week, as a fun event for her daughters and their friends. Maybe you can get a group of 8 kids together and each family take a week of providing “camp” for the others. Or perhaps talk to an enterprising high schooler who has a couple of friends to work with and wants to develop a camp. Other than that, look into signing up for multiple weeks of free / low cost summer Bible camps at area churches.

The last thing I do if I was in this position is entrust my children to the type of people that voted for this garbage. Lord knows what kind of nonsense they would try to push on my children. That’s why it’s cheap, you know. The indoctrination is the goal.

The sooner these churches die, the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I are federal contractors and our companies have lost many contracts and laid people off. We have decided that we want to cancel our kids extracurricular activities and summer camp until we see whether all of this cruel senseless destruction of people lives and the economy stops. How best to explain this to a 5 and 8 year old without making them nervous?

They are old enough to understand that your jobs have changed and you need to cut back on unnecessary expenses.