I LOVED camp and so does my kid. He is now 14 and his pure joy surrounding anything to do with camp is truly special. He has school friends and activities and is a happy kid, but the love of camp and camp friends is off the charts. He goes for a month and has been with mostly the same kids for years. I do think it’s very different than a week long camp, or a sports camp where you stay in dorms. Nothing wrong with those at all but a month or two at a summer camp is its own thing, and, yes, similar to on tv.

Anonymous wrote:DH went once to a YMCA camp and said it was absolutely awful. I’ve never been to sleepaway camp. I’d go to one of the adult sleepaway camps that exist now because I’ve always been curious.

People who went as kids, was it like tv makes it out to be?

Our kids have gone since they were 8, usually for 3 weeks (they are adults now, so there were some summers that there were exceptions). It gives them a sense of freedom that they can never have at home, and builds such confidence. Our kids went to 2 different camps (each one had different likes), and yes, they both loved their experiences. Campfires, friends, 3 weeks of no screens, and lots of freedom

I have kids that attend single gendered 7-week New England sleepaway camps. And yes, they are even better than in the movies. Truly. I never went to one as a kid, but I spend summers working at the ones my kids attend. I can absolutely say from an insider as staff and from witness the experiences my own kids are having, they are a fantastic way to spend the summer. The counselors were all campers and still want to come back even in college and beyond. Staff have been working there decades and still come back yr after yr (and no one actually needs to work there). Kids start going as young as 8 and most come back every year. It’s a very positive environment and entirely different than a mixed gender Y week-long camp.

Our sleep away is cheaper than day camp too

Our family is on the fourth generation going to the same camp. Middle class, camp has a sliding scale and adult alumni volunteer to keep costs low.

Kids have an amazing time.

DC’s counselor is was a camper at that camp and his counselor was DC’s aunt.

I went to YMCA camp from 3rd grade through all of HS. It was amazing! Independence, sailing, great counselors and friends, camp traditions, etc. I'm hoping my DS eventually wants to go too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Camps are for the upper class that want to give the nanny a summer vacation while also giving their kids access to the token poors. Those “scholarship kids” make the rich kids feel “inclusive “ 1 month a year so they have something to write about on their college apps so they don’t just appear as another legacy admit.

Wtf? Omg no. I’m not saying that wealthy people don’t do stupid crap like try to expose their children to “less fortunate” and I firmly disagree with that. But that isn’t why they do sleepaway camp??? They do it because they have generational wealth so their parents did it and their parents parents did it and they all loved it and found it a wholesome, caring, fun, part of their childhood that helped them grow. So they want that for their kid. And they want all kids to have access to that too.

Rehearsed things rich people say for $500, Alex.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop treating the word "privilege" like it's something negative. Give your children the best life you can. One person's privilege may mean nothing to someone else, so there's no universal standard for what privilege is—and there are no "privilege police" deciding who deserves what. We don't have to live like vagrants on skid row just because some people believe everyone should be judged by the lowest standard.

You can thank DEImoncrats for that.

So you say—but here you are demonstrating that what you say is not that credible!

And you’re an idiot demoncrat that walked right into the troll trap.

Anonymous wrote:It was really fun!

Same! In my case, it was very much like you see on TV (cabins, canoeing, campfires, etc.) but without the drama. It was my escape from middle school drama/ life with profoundly disabled sibling.

It was really fun!

Anonymous wrote:Camps are for the upper class that want to give the nanny a summer vacation while also giving their kids access to the token poors. Those “scholarship kids” make the rich kids feel “inclusive “ 1 month a year so they have something to write about on their college apps so they don’t just appear as another legacy admit.

Wtf? Omg no. I’m not saying that wealthy people don’t do stupid crap like try to expose their children to “less fortunate” and I firmly disagree with that. But that isn’t why they do sleepaway camp??? They do it because they have generational wealth so their parents did it and their parents parents did it and they all loved it and found it a wholesome, caring, fun, part of their childhood that helped them grow. So they want that for their kid. And they want all kids to have access to that too.

Anonymous wrote:If you have “fond memories of sleep away summer camp”, it pretty much identifies you as privileged snob. Probably a maga too.

News flash - most people didn’t grow up in homes that could afford to send kids to camp in the summer. It’s a gross display of excess wealth.

What?! No way. The people i know who went to summer camp were NE elites and/or my Jewish friends. Idk why but those Jewish summer camps really have a big calling. Even in college when two Jewish friends met, they usually could figure out ties between themselves based on who went to what summer camp. They weren't all incredibly wealthy either. Many were just regular UMC.

I never went to traditional summer sleep away camp as a kid because my folks just didn't have the $$.

Our school though had an experience for 6th graders were our teachers and parent volunteers along with HS senior counselors would take us to a Y camp for a week.

Our school district was really small so it was probably only around 80 to 100 kids. You had to pay a nominal fee and there were fundraisers to defray costs.

It was a lot of fun doing the traditional camp things mentioned like canoeing, hikes, talent show, dances, etc. I went back as a senior and had even more fun as a counselor than I did as a 6th grader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop treating the word "privilege" like it's something negative. Give your children the best life you can. One person's privilege may mean nothing to someone else, so there's no universal standard for what privilege is—and there are no "privilege police" deciding who deserves what. We don't have to live like vagrants on skid row just because some people believe everyone should be judged by the lowest standard.

You can thank DEImoncrats for that.

So you say—but here you are demonstrating that what you say is not that credible!

Anonymous wrote:If you have “fond memories of sleep away summer camp”, it pretty much identifies you as privileged snob. Probably a maga too.

News flash - most people didn’t grow up in homes that could afford to send kids to camp in the summer. It’s a gross display of excess wealth.

Tell me you’re a troll who never heard of the Fresh Air Fund.