DADVENTURE: Summer Camp Scramble

Somebody recently asked me, "what are the five things that nobody tells a guy about being a dad?" Things like not seeing movies in the theatre any more, or "slight" changes in your sex life come to mind.  But, come to think about it, lots of people talked to me about those things.  And people told me about losing sleep.  And to start saving for college.  I got all that.

One thing that's on my mind that nobody warned me about: summer camp.  Summer camp is absolutely kicking my parenting butt right now.

For kids, summer is all about school's out and the living is easy.  For two-career families, summer is the equivalent of having a sick kid at home for three months.

I'm sorry to sound like a wet picnic blanket, but my wife and I have been working for weeks to cobble together a patchwork calendar of camps and family help to care for our school-age kids for the summer.  My youngest (3) can stay in daycare, so that goes forward, status quo.  But for my oldest, a rising fourth grader, and my middle, a rising first grader, we have to be creative.  And break out the checkbook.

For school age kids there are a variety of options with plusses and minuses.

Sleep-away Camps:
(Oldest for two weeks)
Sleep away camps will generally not take kids before they have finished the second grade, even if parents are comfortable with letting them go.  Separation anxiety for both parents and kids is the biggest issue here.  Maybe more for parents than kids (my Oldest cried when he came home from camp, the little turkey).  This is also the most expensive option.  Without help from grandparents, this option might be out of reach for us.

General Daycamps:
(Middle for two weeks)
With increased specialization, day camps that offer a nice variety of activities, both athletic and artistic, may be a dying breed.   Those that remain with a decent track record and a good facility may be hard to get into, so sign up early.  The challenge here for two-career families is that most will be done by 2-3pm, and will generally not offer an "after-school" style program for working parents.

Sports Camps:
(Oldest for one week)
Popping up like mushrooms everywhere, so it’s hard to tell where the quality is.  We choose camps that are affiliated with an athletic league the kids already participate in, or an educational institution we trust, but this whole segment feels like the Wild West sometimes.  The same working-family-unfriendly start and finish times as the general camps.

Nature/Outdoor Daycamps:
(Oldest and middle for one week)
Some important experiences here, and usually a relative bargain (how expensive can the woods be?), but for those of us living in the city, the outdoors camps are way out there.  Getting my kids to the outdoor camp we like required recruiting all our friends to go to the same camp, so we could arrange carpool.

YMCA/JCC camps:
Usually an amazing, low cost and convenient option for families on a budget.  A really smart way to go, so naturally we don't have our kids in any of these.

Camp Grandma:
(Middle for one week)
The price is right here, but can you impose?  Doesn't she have her own life?  And is she really up to the task of taking on the rambunctious young'un for days at a time?  Sometimes there is simply no other option.

And the costs here are astounding.  The daycamps are going to run $250/wk, at least.  The sleepover camps will start at double that and move quickly upward.  This means that working families with two school age kids – cough, cough – are going to be on the hook for thousands of dollars in summer camp expenses a year.  And that is assuming that you are able to do the research and get your kids signed up in time.

And I'm complaining despite the fact that our schedules allow us to take off the month of July to vacation with the kids.  To those of you playing cruise director for all three months of summer, my hat is off.

We have nothing in August.  We are so going to get fired.

Summer camp can run you into the ground.  Did anyone warn you about that?  How do you manage your summer calendar?
Gather byline

Clay Nichols, Health Correspondent:
Clay’s column, Dadventure, published twice monthly to Gather Essentials: Health, is a sure-fire guide to raising flawless, perfectly behaved, and always obedient children.  Yeah, right.
 
Clay is the co-author of Filmmaking for Teens: Pulling Off Your Shorts, an award-winning playwright, and the Chief Creative Officer at DadLabs.com, a fatherhood website.

You can find all of Clay’s Dadventure articles at http://gather.com/dadventure

Keep up with Clay’s other postings and Gather activity by joining his Gather network -- just click here and select the orange “Connect” button on the left-hand side of the page
 
You’ll find Clay and other health correspondents, plus expert guest columnist content and plenty of other health nuts at Health.gather.com