American mumsnetters - tell me about summer camp!

[GauntJudy]

I'm so intrigued by summer camp. It's a feature of most American kids films or books. I struggle to get my 10yo to attend day clubs over the hols, I wonder how he'd cope with residential camps.

So here are my questions
Did it cost a fortune?
Did everyone go for the same length of time (how long was it)?
How did the parents pick which camp to send you to?
Was it the nearest camp to home?
Did you go to the same camp year after year?
Do siblings go to the same one?
How were dorms assigned?
what age range go to camp?
Did parents check which camp your friends were going to and go as a group?
What did a day at camp look like?
Was it constant outdoor activity?

Or just tell me about your experience, cos that's a lot of questions?!

Thanks

Are your children not hurt/resentful/anxious that they get sent away from the security of their home for an eighth of the year?

It's always seemed so weirdly emotionally unintelligent to me.

Paid holiday leave isn't mandatory in the USA so I think many of us would have to do the same @thestudio

Yes I get that @GauntJudy - to me it's one of those weird American things that is demonstrably not good for children/families/humans which could be fixed but, like gun crime, aren't, because of an entrenched and pigheaded libertarianism.

I can answer one question. My son is working at one. A 3 week stay costs 7500 dollars.

Wow @Bigearringsbigsmile that's expensive! I wish I'd done Camp America when I was a teen.

There's an early reality TV show called Bug Juice which is about kids at summer camp that you might be interested in. It's a pretty typical co-ed camp.

Some kids go for the whole summer and some for only a session. Not all camps operate in a way where kids can stay at the camp all summer. There are also specialist camps for sports, the arts or kids with certain conditions (I had friends who went to a visually impaired camp and a diabetes camp).

I went to a girl scout camp as an older teenager and absolutely loved it! It was a three week session as a counsellor in training with a short break in the middle. We did normal summer camp stuff, but also helped out with younger campers at different parts of the camp. I had a campership that covered costs 100% or I would never had been able to go. It was a camp outside of my local council. The camps are pretty rural though so no one is really local to them.

Girl Scout really wasn't like some of the bigger camps as you can't just drop off your kids and then pick them up at the end of the summer. The sessions are shorter and there are breaks between them. There were a few girls there who were taken from camp to camp by their parents so they were away all summer, but that wasn't the norm. Most girls only went to one session over the entire summer.

I think I would have loved summer camp when I was a teen. It looks so fun, like a giant sleepover with a load of other teens doing amazing things like swimming in lakes.
So much more fun than kicking my heels at home in the countryside for hours at a time, waiting for my parents to get home. Or getting the bus to Weston Super Mare.

I was very shy but I think camp might have been good for me. No idea what I did during the summer holidays, I don't remember being bored, I think i just roamed the streets of my little suburb.

I'll search for Bug Juice thanks @MindlessDaydream

I’m interested to know how common it is to go away to camp. I had an American boyfriend when I was at university and he went to day camp, which he said was more usual, and are quite common in the UK now. I seem to remember that he said a lot of the day camps are organised by community organisations, churches or synagogues, and are not for profit.

I can’t answer your questions about American camps but I can tell you what it is like going away for weeks alone during the school holidays. It was awesome 😂 I’m ancient but I did a PGL camp for fun with a friend one year and from the age of 11 spent a lot of time away during the holidays playing music or at sports training camps. Usually at held at boarding schools or in university/college accommodation or outward bound/residential centres used by schools during term time.

I loved it! Midnight feasts; optional trips, films, sports and other activities during time off from rehearsals/training; discos, fancy dress parties and teenage romances 😂 There may have been some underage drinking…

Residential summer camp is typically very expensive so mostly it’s wealthier families that send their kids there. The families that are depicted in American films are often from the extremes of the wealth spectrum. There are some non-profit camps for low income kids as well.

Most parents send their kids because they went themselves and loved it. It would be less expensive probably to employ someone to take care of the kids at home but school holidays are really long (12-13 weeks) so people want more structured activities for their children than commonly in the UK.

Many kids LOVE it, and yes they usually go back to the same one year after year so they have camp friends that they see in the summers.

One of my children tried it for 3 weeks but didn’t like it that much so she didn’t go back, but I’d say she was unusual.

Can they contact home during their stay @fairlygoodmother? My sons primary school do a 5 day long residential and don't allow mobile phones or calls home (I guess cos its about being independent and minimising homesickness)

I went to Canadian sleepaway camps every year from about age 8 (brownies) to 12. Some years it was good, others not. Eight was probably too young and I was homesick. By 12, or was it 13, I'd started periods and that was also bad at camp.

Going with pre -existing friends is by far the best way. Otherwise you risk spending most of the week friendless until you find someone you click with.

For outdoorsy and independent kids, it can be loads of fun. Specialist camps particularly . But don't underestimate the difficulties of the social side - it's tiring navigating all those unknown people all day, every day.

I went to camp (synagogue youth group) and also sent my daughter (Girl Scouts). I had a fantastic time, our camp was in Malibu, amazing location, and I wanted my daughter to have a similar experience.

Most camps here offer two week sessions, a lot of kids go to more than one. My daughter was placed in a cabin with one girl from her troop and four girls from two other troops, you could request who you wanted for your “cabin buddy” in advance, but still had the opportunity to make new friends.

Camps connected to non-profits are much less expensive than commercial camps.

In my experience, certain camps/summer sessions were geared towards specific age groups, so there weren’t siblings there, unless they were close in age and also involved in Scouts/Hebrew School/music, etc.

Not really - it’s much more common to send your kids to day camp. I don’t know about other states but in mine, towns run fairly affordable day camps in the local schools. They do day trips on school buses a lot, to beaches, water parks, amusement parks, hikes, state parks, lakes… all sorts.

There’s a ton of privately run day camps too - sports camps, science camps, music camps, theatre camps…

It makes the long summer holidays much more achievable for working parents, which helps families to have both parents working.

Mine mostly did day camps, but they did try one sleep away camp for a week. They didn’t like it so we didn’t do it again. It was fairly local, not too expensive, and loads of local kids went for a week or two so they all had friends there.

Every family I know that has sent their kids to sleep away camp, it’s been because the kids love it - I don’t know any who forced their kids to go, although I’m sure it does happen.

I went to a Jewish camp in the UK, it lasted about 2 weeks.

Best weeks of my life! Loved every minute.

We did sports, trips, crafts, drama, games, lots of stuff. It was a community camp so I knew most people and I was with my friends from school.

Same camp now charges about £800 for 10 days. It's non profit and staff volunteer generally. They might get tips.

My camp rented out boarding schools or similar to use. Similar camps in the US usually own a campground with bunkhouses, pool etc

I'm watching Bug Juice as recommended and am enjoying it. The kids are 11 and are (mostly) loving the experience

I would have loved to go to camp as a kid! Summers were so boring because I was an only child. I spent the summers with my dad (who was a teacher) in Canada where I had to help take care of my two half siblings, who were around 10 years younger than me. I made a few friends with the neighbourhood kids but they were usually doing things with their own families. Mostly I read library books, sketched or swam in the neighbour’s pool (when invited). Camp would have been a godsend.

We have them in Europe too. I spent many summers at 3 week camp