My kid is at day camp at seven that has a sleepover option. She’s begging to sleep over, but she’s never even had a sleepover. I gave her a list of challenges for the next year that if she succeeds in, she can sleep away at 8. There are five year olds sleeping away at the camp, but I just think seven is too young. Some of the things on the list are parenting fails of mine (she needs to learn how to comb and deal with her own long hair, get in and out of her bathing suits easily) and some of these are language related since this is a camp in a heritage language she studies in school/we speak at home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You trust strangers with constant access to your vulnerable child?

Do your kids go to school? Activities?

Not the same. Your kid is off on their own 24 hours a day with no real way to contact anyone outside of camp.

The camp will contact you if there is an issue, and you can contact them as well. You can also go and get your kid if you need to for whatever reason. It’s your kid. The camp isn’t kidnapping them.

Non-responsive. The potential risk here includes people employed at the camp. Do you think they are going to call you and tell you about the inappropriate things they did to your child? Or are they going to tell your child not to talk about it?

OMG are you for real and that paranoid? Hundreds of thousands of kids do sleepaway every summer and it is fine.

Sleepaway is definitely not for you if that is how you think.

Anonymous wrote:DD cries every day that she misses her older bro having fun at sleepaway camp. She wants to go there next summer for a week. They won't be at the same cabins due to age and gender. If I let her go, I would want to find a friend to go with her. She is a bit shy. The camp has lake, pool and rope etc.. Before other parents may call me crazy, what is the chance that you will let you 7 year old daughter to go to a sleepaway camp with a buddy for a week if I call you. DD will turn 7 next summer in May, so her friends will be 7 next summer. DH says no, but we think we may be okay if she has a friend to go with her.

My younger son just turned 8 and was begging all year to go off to sleep away camp with his 10 yo brother. We agreed and sent him. Had he not been so persistent, we would have waited until he turned 9. Anyways…He’s doing great and having the time of his life by all accounts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You trust strangers with constant access to your vulnerable child?

Do your kids go to school? Activities?

Not the same. Your kid is off on their own 24 hours a day with no real way to contact anyone outside of camp.

The camp will contact you if there is an issue, and you can contact them as well. You can also go and get your kid if you need to for whatever reason. It’s your kid. The camp isn’t kidnapping them.

Non-responsive. The potential risk here includes people employed at the camp. Do you think they are going to call you and tell you about the inappropriate things they did to your child? Or are they going to tell your child not to talk about it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You trust strangers with constant access to your vulnerable child?

Do your kids go to school? Activities?

Not the same. Your kid is off on their own 24 hours a day with no real way to contact anyone outside of camp.

The camp will contact you if there is an issue, and you can contact them as well. You can also go and get your kid if you need to for whatever reason. It’s your kid. The camp isn’t kidnapping them.

This and BTW I think it’s fantastic my kid is on their own for 24 hours a day. It fosters a sense of independence, being responsible on their own, no mom to tell them what to do. Our camp doesn’t allow screens of any kind (no watch, phone, ipad) and makes a point of telling parents not to call the camp or contact them unless an emergency. You can write a letter and your kid can do the same, that’s it. We get 1 letter in 2weeks, lucky if we get 2. I also suspect the counselors ask the kids to write home or else we would get no letters. Having too much fun to miss mom and dad.

This is a big reason I send my kid to sleep away since he was 7 is to foster independence and confidence, especially since he is an only. He likes it when I give him more independence.

You have got to cut the cord sometime. Some kids are ready earlier than others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You trust strangers with constant access to your vulnerable child?

Do your kids go to school? Activities?

Not the same. Your kid is off on their own 24 hours a day with no real way to contact anyone outside of camp.

The camp will contact you if there is an issue, and you can contact them as well. You can also go and get your kid if you need to for whatever reason. It’s your kid. The camp isn’t kidnapping them.

My kids all went to sleep away camp when they were 7. None of them took a friend. They all really loved it. My younger two started going to four week camps when they were 10, and my oldest is a CIT this year.

They’ve all been to day camps too, but they don’t love them the way they do sleepaway camp.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You trust strangers with constant access to your vulnerable child?

Do your kids go to school? Activities?

Not the same. Your kid is off on their own 24 hours a day with no real way to contact anyone outside of camp.

I sent my sons at 6 years old. Sure there was crying. But they cry at home about stuff too. Camp is about growing up a bit.

I grew up in a European country and we had trips at age 8 but with teachers we knew and parents trusted. I wouldn’t send my 7 year old to a camp where they didn’t know any adults.

We sent DS at 7 for a 5 day sleepaway to test the waters. At 8 did 2 weeks and now it will be his 3rd summer doing 2 weeks.

We will probably increase it to 4-5 weeks summer 2026.

My 7 year old niece is at two week sleepaway camp, right now, and having the time of her life. Her older brother is there on year 2 and my son is there on year 7. My brother, parents and I have all been seeing the pictures and are in awe of how happy she looks all the time. Her brother wasn’t ready at 7, but my son started just after turning 8 and he easily could have started at 7. If she wants to go to camp and is asking to go to camp, she’s ready for camp! I can’t wait to hear all about it from her (and the boys) tomorrow when they come home. Camp time is the best time!

Girl Scout leader with three daughters here. An extroverted, adaptable, social butterfly can do well at 7 for a week. Other kids do better waiting until 8-10.

Two of mine started camp at 7ish. Oldest was 7.5 and had done troop camping at the same camp before, so she knew what she was signing up for. Middle daughter is more shy and even though she had also done a lot of troop camping by then, preferred to wait until 8.5 and wanted to go with a friend the first year. Youngest is a social butterfly like the oldest and started the summer she turned 7 without any troop camping experience. Went by herself but her older sister was there the same week (in a different group). All continued the next year, so had good enough experiences to want to go back!

I do not understand sending a child to sleep away camp. 7 is too young.

Anonymous wrote:Have her join Brownies. They do outdoor activities and practice camping.
Has she ever had a sleepover other than with family?

Yuck no