Did you go to camp?

I heard a few weeks ago something on the local radio station about summer camps. You know what camps were the best and mostest popular and they said something that I never really understood seeing as how we couldn't afford* to go to these fancy dancy camps----they are 8 weeks long.

8 WEEKS? Geesh why have kids at all? They get out of school and you ship them off for 2/3 of their summer break if not more. I guess kids mess up cocktail hour for Mommy and Dad might have to roll off the secretary and come home early or something.

Is there a family vacation added on to this somewhere or is getting rid of the Rusty and his scabbed up knees and elbows considered the vacation that doesn't come in pill form?

Am I make too much out of this? Did you go to a cool camp? you know like the one in "Meatballs"?? **

* I did go to Boy Scout camp and Summer Bible camp but at most there was one night of sleep over not 8 WEEKS oh and I did go to soccer and basketball camp for a week each when I was in intermediate (jr. high) school.

** "Meatballs" not either of the sequels.

summer i went to day camp at the Y, always had fun.

girls... I really wanted to go, begged and pleaded even. In the end, I probably would have been homesick, so it's best I didn't :hi:

because 1) I asked to go because a lot of my friends were going and 2) it sounded like a lot of fun. It was two weeks long. I was incredibly homesick during the first week, but by the end of the second week, I was having a blast. I am glad it didn't last longer than two weeks, because I don't know that I could have handled it. I was 8 years old, after all. It was fun, and I got to do lots of things (like horseback riding) that I would not have gotten to do otherwise. However, my parents did not just arbitrarily sign me up for it, and they didn't want me gone the whole summer.

I also went to several rounds of day camp in the summer when I was in grade school, and that was a lot of fun. We went hiking and went to state parks as well as Six Flags, and I was still at home in the evenings. :)

Water-skiing, horseback riding etc. But they were only a week long. I'm sure my parents enjoyed the break, but I also had a blast at camp. I think 2-3 weeks would have been wonderful.

Lack of funds combined with the fact that my mother could hardly stand for us to spend the night at a friend's house. That was a combination of really, really loving her kids and deep-seated paranoia. :)

Me, I went to Brownie camp when I was a wee girl. On day three I came down with the mumps and was quickly shipped home. That pretty much sums up my camping history.

who live in urban centers. Getting out of the concrete jungle for 8 weeks is the best way to spend the summer. My experience as a parent of a young child who cannot be left unsupervised is that summer is the hardest time of the year. I work, and cannot shorten my day, etc., to care for my daughter during the summer. She will be starting a day camp in a couple of weeks because she is still too young (just finished 1st grade) to go to sleepaway camp, but as soon as she is emotionally ready, why not? It is great fun and a huge building block for your kids. Don't look at it as shipping them off, really, it's not.

It was fun to meet girls again you became friends with the years before. I enjoyed it.

My mom was a single parent, and it was getting more and more expensive to send me to camp for 4 weeks. So she got a job at my camp as camp mom, and I got to for 8 weeks. And even when she stopped working, I chose to go for 8 weeks. My mom had a full a full time job all summer, so I couldn't sit home all day and do nothing. And I loved camp so much.

My parents couldn't afford summer camp for us. Just as well, actually....

Talk about snotty kids.

All their fathers were CEO's or diplomats.

The most miserable experience of my life. I had a horse and a lake cabin at home. WTF was I doing at French Camp?

The food, however, was tres bon!

Inbetween fifth and sixth grade, sponsored by the school. It was three weeks and I had a blast. Nearly the entire class of fifth graders went. I don't think any of the kids wanted to go home. Camp ended right before school started, and I can remember singing camp songs at recess because we all missed it so much.

Twice. I have recovered.

A lot of day camps I know of last that long but I've never heard of sending your kid somewhere and not get them back for 8 weeks. :scared:

I went to day camps as a kid. The only time I did a "camp" where I spent the night was when I spent a week at a Quaker retreat with my best friend AND her parents. Slightly off topic but Quakers are the coolest, most nice people I've ever met.

Now that I'm a parent, I don't understand how my parents could afford the camps I went to. The cheapest camp I can find cost $135/wk.

I'm sure they exist, but most overnight camps are 2-4 weeks, though some people do send their kids for the whole summer. They just stay in the cabin and different kids rotate in every couple of weeks. Kind of sad really.

Day camps though, and even some of the overnight ones for that length, are just sadly necessary for some parents. Sure, I bet there are some that just ship their kids off constantly because it interferes with Martini hour, but often time it's work schedules.

If you have an 8 year old kid and you both work 60 hours a week, what do you do? Some poeple would rather their kids run around a YMCA camp out in the woods for the summer rather than sit in the house and play video games, or worse randomly wander around the city on their own for 10 hours a day. Day Camps last the whole summer, or most of it, and the kids come home most nights, although there are trips usually in the good ones.

Having a kid stay home for 8 weeks was easy when one parent didn't work. I personally would not be comfortable leaving my kids alone at home all summer at those ages. I also wouldn't want to not see them for 2 months. Day camps are a good option.

It was the best experience of my life.

I went to Space Camp and soccer camp — both were only about two weeks long. Eight weeks, jeez. :o

but I know people who went to camps like the one you mention -- my girlfriend went to summer camp every summer from about age 8 to 12, and she said it was the time of her life every time. If the kids love it so much, why not send them to summer camp? Who're you hurting? The kids get a fun vacay, and you get a couple months to be a couple again. Seems reasonable to me. :shrug:

The first one I went to was Girl Scout camp-Camp Anna Behrens, about 45 minutes north of Grand Rapids. It was fun-we just ran around in the woods like little maniacs for two weeks.

I went twice to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp when I was in junior high. I had fun there, but got food poisoning the second time I went there, and swimmer's itch both times.

I went to Interlochen for 2 weeks through U of M's program. It was an incredible experience. It is the Hogwarts for musical kids. It also was the first camp I went to where we were treated somewhat like adults.

I went to a Young Life camp in Colorado when I was 16, called Frontier Ranch. The camp was in such a beautiful place, plus we had a lot of fun there riding horses, mountain climbing and all that other fun camp stuff.

both day and night, and they were all very cool and tons of fun!

regular camp
Horseback riding camp
Tennis Camp (in Boston)


All were at least 8 weeks and were absolutely fabulous experiences for me.


(We had family vacations in addition, so no, this wasn't a "get rid of the kids" ploy, but rather, for my own benefit as I was a very shy child)

2 with the Boy Scouts

My son grew out of it pretty quick but my daughter loved it. She wanted to be a CIT which would mean being gone for 8 weeks, but they still make you pay for 4 weeks. Good deal for the camp.

We went to a different camp every year from 3rd to 6th grade in school, plus I had various weekend camps to go to for Camp Fire. I never went to some 8 week thing though my father was a single parent and could certainly have used the break.

My presby church growing up had a camp attached to the church. Growing up I was either gowing to camp or I was teaching my own group of campers. :-) It was fun, with all the normal camp acitivities like swimming, nature walks, art projects and music. :-)

I also think I missed something as I got older in not going to one of those camps where you stay there. So, comme ci; comme ca.

for a week or 2 each summer.

Camp Napowan near Wild Rose Wisconsin was cabins, mess hall, lots of structured activities.

Camp Namekagon near Minong Wisconsin was a wilderness camp. You got nothing but what you carried in, and it was a long hike.

RL

but if my kids wanted to go I'd send them.

Started the Monday after school ended and went till the saturday before school started.