How Not to Send Your Kids to Camp

#8) Don't expect your teenager not to complain when he returns home, no matter how much fun he actually had.

Or maybe I just won't send them at all. You've scared the guilt (for being unable to afford camp) out of me . The ONE time I sent my son, he came home sicker than he's ever been in his life. 103 temp, n/v, and LETHARGY. That was how I knew he was really sick -he was quiet.

I've never even considered camp for a kid. Perhaps because the only one old enough I'd be willing to let go splits her summers with her dad. Still, I can't imagine, in this climate, having them camp with anyone I didn't trust implicitly. So, if they go camping, it will have to be with Dad.

I'm weird.

My parents were so smart…they used to send us to sleep-away camp every summer for 8 whole weeks….in another state! Of course we had a blast but I was always angry at them for shipping us off for that long of a time. Now, as a parent, I get it….I totally get it.

Oh and our camp counselors were practically teenagers too. It's funny though how at the time I thought they were so much older and mature. Looking back, they were really just a bunch of horny, drunk and stoned 17-year olds.

Because I'm one of "THOSE" mom's, and they've lost my kid at day camp, It's gonna be a while before my kid goes to sleep-away camp.

Oh, great. As if I weren't nervous enough about sending my completely immature-for-her-age 8-year-old to sleep-away camp for the first time! Thank goodness it's only 3 days.

I think I'll rename your post "How not to pack for vacay at Nana's" (my ex's mom). I love her dearly, but one of my favorite things to do is let the children forget (hehe) all their socks.

You can almost hear her head explode all the way from Atlanta to St. Louis! I love this post!!

Wow. They lost your kids? Yikes.

I've heard the camps with teenagers are not recommended from several people, too.

A friend of mine is winging his way to Colorado as we speak, to pick up his kid from camp. Seems there was an outbreak of A1 flu. So Mother, is H1 N1 really a subset of A1? The camp claims it couldn't test for the subset. Sort of off topic, but on my mind.

xoxo

I think I probably watched one too many installments of the Friday the 13th series to want to ship my kids off to a sleep-away camp. Your list doesn't instill the adequate confidence in their abilities to care for my children either. Lightning hikes, bronchitis and barbed wire?! I suppose it is hard to be safety conscious when you have such an intense preoccupation with the state of the camper's laundry.

Yes, the H1N1 flu, as with most of the seasonal and epidemic flu strains, is a strain of Influenza A. I don't understand why the camp can't test–it's readily available, and the local public health system would, one would think, be quite interested in a camp that has flu and is spreading it all around the country.

That said, I sent my 15 yo off to a campus that already warned me had H1N1 cases. If he gets sick? EH, he's young, he can take it.

In the summer I just kick my kids outside and tell them to find something to do. Then I have to go looking for them–not far, they're usually in the barn or in the playhouse or in our field. I haven't seen the need for camp yet, nor do I have the finances for it, but no one has ever asked to go. I think they're just so darn busy during the school year that they're kinda happy to just hang around outside or read books or find some project. They're pretty good that way, probably because I taught them from a young age that I am their mother, not their personal entertainer.

Yep, most of what you posted happened to me at camp. Makes me super excited to send mine. After which, I TOTALLY plan to do #7

Camp. And all the crazy things that happen there. Oh, how i miss camp, if only for the stories children running through stinging nettle yelling "Bees!!!!!"

Great list.

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