Summer Camp Plans? I Should Cancel, Right?

[carolinamama]

What are you planning for the summer? Last fall, I signed up DD(9) for a session of sleepaway camp after her friend's mom told me they had signed up. It's a typical, amazing summer camp with lake activities, hiking, bonfires and old-fashioned fun. She's been several summers but missed 2020 due to Covid. I hate to take away yet another activity but I'm not sure we will be comfortable by this summer. I'd love to push off the decision but my balance is due March 1st. Pay it and hope for the best? Pull her out and try again next year? Why do all these decisions feel harder than they should? DH says no but he'd also have our kids wrapped in a bubble until 2024 at this point.

[AngB]

What are you planning for the summer? Last fall, I signed up DD(9) for a session of sleepaway camp after her friend's mom told me they had signed up. It's a typical, amazing summer camp with lake activities, hiking, bonfires and old-fashioned fun. She's been several summers but missed 2020 due to Covid. I hate to take away yet another activity but I'm not sure we will be comfortable by this summer. I'd love to push off the decision but my balance is due March 1st. Pay it and hope for the best? Pull her out and try again next year? Why do all these decisions feel harder than they should? DH says no but he'd also have our kids wrapped in a bubble until 2024 at this point.

I would probably send them but that's me. It also depends, did they have camp last summer? How were the precautions? Did it spread there?

I have said in other posts, my 9yo sat facing a kid (same table, normal pre-covid distance) for a week that left school early on a Friday and then we found out Tuesday had covid. They do wear masks at school but this kid and DS were also unmasked for PE, lunch, snack, water breaks near each other. I thought there was a pretty good chance he would get it from the kid but nope, he didn't. They only have recess and PE outdoors, the rest of the time is indoors and not socially distanced but with masks. Our area has awful covid numbers and yet covid hasn't really spread especially at the elementary schools. (Out of hundreds of kids quarantined from close contact, they've had ONE that caught covid from a classmate.) I pretty strongly feel that kids aren't spreading it very much kid to kid. (And all the kids I know that have had it have extremely minor cases actually even less affected than even head colds.) If they had spread it to each other, our district would have been screwed a long time ago. The kids that get covid are getting it from their families and still even though they may come to school with it, it's still not spreading. (I've had all three kids quarantined from close contacts and none of them have had covid.) I would be very comfortable personally sending my 9 yo assuming normal health and relatively normal family health (ie. I wouldn't consider someone with asthma super high risk especially by summer with widespread vaccinations, presumably lower numbers, presumably mostly outdoor activities... but someone undergoing cancer treatments maybe that risk is not worth it.)

Good luck with your choice!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I plan to send ds2 to his usual one week sleep away camp.


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[hillview]

Our boys are doing a month of sleep away camp. What’s their refund policy?

[KpbS]

Our kids will go again. Very small camp, good precautions. Not one case of Covid all summer. Ours will refund money if camp has to be cancelled and last year, they let you roll your tuition forward if you chose.

[mmsmom]

My kids did 2 weeks last summer and will do the same this summer. They have not yet announced the precautions they will take this summer but I expect it will be similar to last year and they had no major issues then. Teachers and child care workers are currently being vaccinated in our state and although the counselors are from all over I expect most will have the opportunity to be vaccinated before camp.

[carolinamama]

Thanks guys! You've made me feel better about sending her. The camp decided not to operate last year and refunded the money. I'm not worried about a refund should the same thing happen but DH makes me feel crazy for considering it. I have no idea what precautions they will take but I would think they will be in place. She's a super social kid and loves these types of activities.

[dogmom]

Thanks guys! You've made me feel better about sending her. The camp decided not to operate last year and refunded the money. I'm not worried about a refund should the same thing happen but DH makes me feel crazy for considering it. I have no idea what precautions they will take but I would think they will be in place. She's a super social kid and loves these types of activities.

I don’t think you are crazy to send her, but I would have a sit down talk with you DD and just ask her how she feels about Covid, does it worry her, etc, then bring up camp. It will take a lot of open questions. My MIL lives with me and my youngest internalized a lot of stress about possible getting sick or getting his grandmother sick, but did not express it. I made the mistake of assuming he would want to go go school more when he had an option of increasing his hybrid schedule from one week in person out of four to every other week. He was very articulate about the risk benefits and thought staying the course was the best option for him right now. My kids are well aware that my DH and I have different takes on risks/benefits and are trying to work between us a lot. So you may need to address that issue also.

[AnnieW625]

If there was a week long camp here I could afford for DDs I would send them. Dd2 has done sleep away camp at ages 8 and 9 and had a great time; DD1 has never been and will be 15 this year, but I think it would be good for her. Nothing here is open other than uber expensive one or two week camps.


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[candaceb]

I think you should find out about the camp's COVID plan and go from there. DS's camp has a really robust plan and I am very comfortable sending him. They studied the camps that were and weren't successful last summer and are adjusting their plans accordingly. It also helps that they're part of a network of camps so they don't have to figure it all out on their own.

[robinsmommy]

I would also keep a really, really close eye on what happens with the new variants of the virus. The new ones like B117 do make you sicker and also appear to be much more transmissible in kids - there was an article on an Italian town, i think, that had a huge boom in cases only of that variant- almost all of which were in young school kids and their parents.

[erosenst]

I think you should find out about the camp's COVID plan and go from there. DS's camp has a really robust plan and I am very comfortable sending him. They studied the camps that were and weren't successful last summer and are adjusting their plans accordingly. It also helps that they're part of a network of camps so they don't have to figure it all out on their own.

Same camp - although DD will be going for 9 weeks for her 'work/study' (similar to CIT program at many camps) summer. On top of the other precautions, they won't let her year go offsite for 'nights out', no parent visiting weekend, no leaving for a week for college visits/family events/whatever as they usually allow. DD has been in school (hybrid) since August with minimal spread, so that does help my comfort level.