Is all day camp too much for a 9.5 year old for 5 weeks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working parents do this all the time without an issue, and for much younger kids. It is fine.

But you are forced to do it so even if it was an issue you would never know because you don't see them. You chose to both work and put your kids in full time daycare, then full time preschool, school with before and aftercare, and then weeks and weeks of summer daycare/day camps until they start back at school again. That doesn't mean all kids should or even want to do it. I think it sucks. Kids need a lot more downtime and autonomy instead of an assembly line of 9-5 babysitting scheduled 365 days a year. Do kids even know how to run off and play with friends anymore? Use their own minds, make their own fun, use their imagination, common sense and critical thinking skills?

You do realize that camps have tons of unstructured time, no?

I used to be a teen camp counselor as well as a camp nurse and I can assure you that camps do not have "tons" of unstructured time. Maybe 15min before a meal. That is about it.

Well, your experience is outdated. My kids go to camps here and there and they go to the pool, no structure there. Have iPad time, no structure there. Go to the park, no structure there, go to movies, no structure. As a matter of fact, since my kids don't attend camp regularly, I look for structure. It's not a given. Unstructured time is seen as valuable and that is why today's camps offer it.

You pay for camps they let kids sit on iPads or go to movies? Huh??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess it depends on the kid and what they are used to. My kids would have hated it. They really didn't even love the half day summer camps. They much preferred hanging out at the pool, playing outside with friends, and generally being lazy all summer. They did half day sports camp, band camp, VBS,....stuff like that. But mostly summer was about lazy days with friends.

Exactly. And there are plenty of neighborhoods still like this. Maybe not full of million dollar homes, but the families with a SAHP have other priorities. SAHM's are common in our neighborhood. And full day camp all summer is not. You don't have to go to 1970 to find this.

SAHMS are common in my community and most kids are in camps anyway. Howere, 7 figure home are the norm. My kids are bored most summer, but they are also very athletic and social and want to be with their friends who are all at sports camps mostly.

You missed my point. Rich SAHM's in million dollar homes send their kids to camp all summer. UMC SAHM's in 700k homes do swim team and a few half days camps here and there, and lots and lots of play dates.

[Anonymous]

Uh, I hope not, since we work my kids have been going to daycamp from 9 to 5:50 every summer (any weeks we are not on vacation) since they were 5. Pick a camp with fun activities like swimming, hiking, arts, sports, etc. We tried several camps at first and this year we are trying music camp for three weeks in addition to a private school camp and a Lego camp in the city.