What is your 13 year old doing this summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t get 13-year-old to go to Sleepaway camp. Her main issue is she thinks she won’t be able to sleep well. She is very high maintenance and requires a lot of conditions to sleep. She also tends to be sleepwalker. Should I continue to encourage her to find a sleep away camp or let this go? I feel like she’s missing out on such a great childhood experience.

Honestly, no. Teens have much more fun hanging with friends locally. Mine do club sports but in their off time they pool, Metro to places, museums, etc… fairs, mall, baking, movies, visiting friends, sleepovers, and community service.

The group that goes to sleep away camp have had families that ship them off since 6-8yrs old and make them have summer friends. If yours started this late, she would be out of the cliques. DCUM makes it seem like this is a normal summer activity but most kids do not go away for weeks/ months at a time unless you are Jewish or the private school groups. Most teens serious in sports and pool swim teams never do it and have their own groups and hangouts all summer. Many volunteer at local day camps too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If kids still rode bikes, played outside, read books, took hikes, played flashlight tag and did all the stuff I did in the summer in the 80s, I’d be ALLL about not scheduling anything for them. Unfortunately, if I don’t schedule camps, trips, structured activities, and athletics, the entire summer would be screens and no exercise.

I was born in '76, and went to camp for eight weeks every single summer from the time I was four years old, until I was 14 and old enough to work. I rode my bike after camp, read books at night and on weekends, there was nowhere to hike and flashlights weren't for playing with (I had a strict home). When I was 5-8 I went to a reading club at the library once week in the evenings. Sometimes after dinner I'd go to the park a couple of blocks from our house and hit a tennis ball against the concrete wall there. Not everyone ran around drinking out of hoses not coming home until the street lights went on in the 80's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If kids still rode bikes, played outside, read books, took hikes, played flashlight tag and did all the stuff I did in the summer in the 80s, I’d be ALLL about not scheduling anything for them. Unfortunately, if I don’t schedule camps, trips, structured activities, and athletics, the entire summer would be screens and no exercise.

I guess it depends on where you live. My neighborhood the kids are all around, they have some day camps here or there but most are on swim team, go to the pool, and there are playground camps that the city of Rockville does that is amazing. $250 for the summer and once they are old enough, they can volunteer. So they usually do morning swim, breakfast, go to playground camp for a few hours to play capture the flag, sports, hike, etc.... , head home with friends when it's hot for a break/video games/movies/baking and then back to the pool again in the late afternoon. We bbq there or get delivery for dinner. Kids play cards, board games, basketball, tennis, bocce, corn hole, etc... Most of the nights, I just bring shampoo/conditioner/pajamas and they take showers there. Then there is the begging of sleepovers and start again the next day.

I have had 3 kids and never once scheduled a sleep away camp and usually only do 1 week of a specialized camp a summer. They have a ton of swim team friends and 2 are on summer sports teams.

[Anonymous]

Four weeks band camp, two weeks sleepaway, one week fishing camp, the rest vacation/veg out.

[Anonymous]

4 weeks vacation/travel
1 week sleep away GS camp
1 week Rock climbing camp
2 weeks crew (this is just mornings so the rest of the day is free)
1 week nothing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Four weeks band camp, two weeks sleepaway, one week fishing camp, the rest vacation/veg out.

7 weeks of camp!!!

And we wonder why our kids have no autonomy, street smarts, or confidence.

[Anonymous]

Abso f%*king lutely nothing.

[Anonymous]

Just curious did all your parents plan your entire summer out in January or did you just have like an actual summer?

I mean the kid's a teenager. This thread is embarrassing and coddling.

Isn't the whole point of being a teen is finally having some weeks of nothing and fun. Limit the screens and let them be bored and create their own fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious did all your parents plan your entire summer out in January or did you just have like an actual summer?

I mean the kid's a teenager. This thread is embarrassing and coddling.

Isn't the whole point of being a teen is finally having some weeks of nothing and fun. Limit the screens and let them be bored and create their own fun.

I went to sleep away camp for 8 weeks at age 13. My kids are going for 7 weeks at same age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4 weeks of camp, 2 weeks of vacation, odd babysitting and dog walking jobs and hanging out with friends. I’m off in the summers.

You are off and you ship a teen off for a month of camp?

Newsflash. Lots of kids love camp and have any friends that attend every year also. It’s a great screen free time to be kids and enjoy things they can’t during the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t get 13-year-old to go to Sleepaway camp. Her main issue is she thinks she won’t be able to sleep well. She is very high maintenance and requires a lot of conditions to sleep. She also tends to be sleepwalker. Should I continue to encourage her to find a sleep away camp or let this go? I feel like she’s missing out on such a great childhood experience.

13 is old to start unless she is really interested in going. Sleepaway camp isn’t for high maintenance kids. They won’t like it. They need to be adaptable, resilient, and ok being uncomfortable from time to time and dealing with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Government contractor as IT support help desk, $30/hr.

A 13 year old??

Yes, troubleshoot network and application issues on PC and MAC. DH taught him how to do that at the age of ten. My neighbor is a Fed and she convinces one of the gov contractors to hire my son.

Similar for our kid 14 though he builds out AI/AR environments for companies/orgs. Makes a ton of money.

AI and AR are two completely separate fields, so which is it. Please, provide more details...which companies, what languages is your kid using, etc.

I know they are two different fields. He has done some learning models for inventory and traffic flow for retail. I don’t remember what he uses for that I believe it is modified Jetson setup connect to several cameras.

Then copying the physical store as a foot print to build out a virtual store using Unity.
He is pretty proficient in Python. And is getting into data science using Tableau.

Now he is working on a training environment to mimic standard processes for small assemblies.

Neither me or spouse are industry or hobby tech people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 14-year-old is working as a CIT at a tennis camp, with the hope that he will get hired next year when he is 15 (the minimum age to work at the camp).

Would love to hear the name of the tennis camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t get 13-year-old to go to Sleepaway camp. Her main issue is she thinks she won’t be able to sleep well. She is very high maintenance and requires a lot of conditions to sleep. She also tends to be sleepwalker. Should I continue to encourage her to find a sleep away camp or let this go? I feel like she’s missing out on such a great childhood experience.

13 is old to start unless she is really interested in going. Sleepaway camp isn’t for high maintenance kids. They won’t like it. They need to be adaptable, resilient, and ok being uncomfortable from time to time and dealing with it.

The only kids I know that go are high maintenance kids from high maintenance families LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious did all your parents plan your entire summer out in January or did you just have like an actual summer?

I mean the kid's a teenager. This thread is embarrassing and coddling.

Isn't the whole point of being a teen is finally having some weeks of nothing and fun. Limit the screens and let them be bored and create their own fun.

I went to sleep away camp for 8 weeks at age 13. My kids are going for 7 weeks at same age.

These are Jewish camps. I am talking the rest of society.