Let this summer end before planning for next!
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
I could hardly believe my eyes. The banner on the summer camp website read: “Enroll now for summer 2010!”
My daughter was enrolled in the second session of this overnight camp – and that session hadn’t even begun! Shouldn’t the girls all have the opportunity to experience some of camp before we get bombarded with pressure to re-enroll? How about some distance from camp to let the dust settle and be sure they truly want to return?
This is her 5th year at this all girls camp in northern Maine and over all it’s been a great experience for her. It’s a basic camp – good mix of arts and crafts, sports, drama and learning how to negotiate the social scene without us parents in the way.
As with most of these “popular” camps, there is some pressure to sign up early as the sessions do fill up quickly and in the past we have reenrolled fairly soon after she has returned from camp. But, our style has always been to let her come home and get some space from camp. Our feeling has been that while in the throws of camp madness and fun her feeling will be “yes, of course I want to go back!” Given the price tag of these camps, we wanted to be sure that feeling lingered past the onsite routine and stood the test of time before sending in the deposit.
This year, though, we could tell before camp even started that she was becoming not as enthusiastic to camp. Now entering high school, her interests are more varied and how she wants to spend her time has also changed. She’s have a good time at camp this summer but not the “Great!!” time she’s had in the past. She’s finding the girls more caddy and also finding that the camp isn’t meeting her needs in activities as it had in the past. In short, she’s clearly out grown this camp.
Now, this is a child who 2 years ago was “100% sure” that next summer, the last summer she could attend this camp as a camper, she would go all summer because that summer would be her “Queen Summer”. Now, as it turns out, she won’t be returning to this camp and we’ll be helping her explore other camp options. It’s truly time.
So, as this summer ends, don’t think so quickly about next summer. Let’s all give our kids the luxury of decompressing a bit and growing a ton. The only one’s who actually benefit from early enrollment are the camps – and their bank accounts!
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