You may have noticed I have been a bit of a Tangle of Stress recently. OMG allowances!! OMG music lessons!! OMG pianos!! OMG guinea pigs!! I’ll bet if I kept track on a calendar, I’d find I was ALWAYS a mess this time of year—and by “this time of year” I mean “right before school lets out.” The children’s summer looms before me, MENACINGLY.
I try to sign them up for stuff, and it sends me nearly over the edge to try to plan it. It’s like, if I sign Edward up for this one-week day camp he wants to do, and I sign Elizabeth up for this other one-week day camp she wants to do, and then Henry is in day-camp all summer because otherwise life is intolerable, and then swimming lessons are offered in four 2-week sessions and they can’t take a session if they’ll miss a week so it makes the most sense to do two weeks of day camp in a row but it would be more fun to spread the camps out a bit, and then archery lessons are only offered the first and third weeks of July, and then Elizabeth wants to do a Girl Scouts sleep-away camp and I don’t know if I can’t stand that but on the other hand I don’t want to squash her independence/bravery just because I’M scared, and both older boys are doing swim team, and I need to make sure I’m not signing myself up to drive three children three different directions at the same time, then SOLVE FOR X.
And summer activities have almost universally poor information. I read through it again and again, thinking “I am an adult with a reasonable level of education, and I am the exact target audience of this pamphlet. I should be able to understand where this gymnastics camp is located, what time of day it takes place, how to sign up, how much it costs, whether children have to already be taking lessons there in order to participate in the summer program, and what level of previous gymnastics experience is required.” BUT NO. Perhaps when the children are older, I will start a new career of Writing Camp Pamphlets. I know very little about Selling A Camp (which seems to be the current emphasis of such pamphlets), but I DO know WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY HOW.
My MAIN-main fret right now is Girl Scout camp. It’s Elizabeth’s first year, but does she want to do day camp? No. How about the 4-day sleep-away camp? No. She wants to do SEVEN-DAY SLEEP-AWAY CAMP. And partly because of fretting and partly because of oblivious newbieness, I didn’t seriously look into signing her up until now, when it turns out we are past the sign-up date and will have to pay a $20 late-registration fee, AND all the camps she most wanted are full. So now I am also trying to solve for Y: “Well, there’s one 7-day one for her age group, but it’s the last one in August, and she was hoping for June or July, and so was I because I wanted to get the camp counselors before they were burned out. Or here’s another option, but it’s for grades 2-5 so she’d be in with girls about to go into 6th grade? That doesn’t seem right. Well, what about this one? Right time, 2nd and 3rd graders, 7-days! Oh, it’s horse camp. Here’s another one, but that’s at the place that’s four hours away. This one seems PERFECT!!–oh, it’s full.” What my lying-awake brain wants me to do is go back in time and sign up for it when she could have had her first choice.
This is stressing me out just to read about it, and I went through significant stress levels to figure out ONE kid’s summer activities, so I can imagine you are about at your wit’s end.
It sounds like maybe horse camp is the best option, if Elizabeth is remotely interested in riding. I think if it meets the “right time, right age, right length” then the rest is kind of incidental (unless she has a deep fear of horses). I did a horse-y Girl Scout sleepaway camp when I was 10 and 11 and the horse part of it was only maybe two hours a day; the rest of the time it was regular camp stuff, like swimming in the lake, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and hiking for miles through the woods to consume truly godawful meals in the dining hall. Honestly, I had a fantastic time — the only drawback is that she may end up wanting to take riding lessons year-round; at least, that was the effect it had on me (and there was nowhere around us to ride, so that was that — saved my parents some money, anyway).
The poorly drafted pamphlet is one of my pet peeves. It’s one of those situations where I end up boggling at some unseen person’s incompetence, especially when their goal is to take my money, and I am willing to give them my money, but I NEED SUFFICIENT INFORMATION to do so.
OMG did you go to Camp Farnsworth in the 80s. That is my identical experience. I suppose they’re all like that :D
I’m so glad you write. It reminds me that there were a lot of things about raising kids that I HATED, and scheduling summers was one of Those Things.
I totally agree on the “informative” pamphlets that are missing all the key information. My daughter’s middle school had the same approach in emails about pretty much every event (and I’m looking forward to her changing schools next year).
As I recall about my Girl Scout camp experiences, some kids handled it just fine, but some (especially younger kids) did a lot of middle of the night homesick weeping. What’s the longest Elizabeth has been away from you before, not counting sleepovers at friends’ houses where she knows the mom well?
Just one night.
The summer brochures are all a mess. This was the first year I looked at them and I was totally overwhelmed. I gave up entirely. I will try again next year.
Anything – summer pamphlets, outdated websites, and Facebook business pages lacking pertinent information, are the bane of my existence. Lately for me it’s been the u-pick farms. We like to take the kids and pick fruit in the summer, but these Facebook pages/websites are so confusing and out of date. What can I pick, where are you located, what days and time may I come? Three freaking things I need to know. “WE HAVE STRAWBERRIES” does me no good unless I’m on a global scavenger hunt and that’s not really my thing.
I know this isn’t what you were going for, but what fun! Yay summer.
(Sorry. I just know you will figure it out and it will be awesome.)
I HATE SUMMER SO MUCH. This is one thing that seems WORSE as my kid ages (most things are BETTER from where I sit, but NOT THIS).
Camps are at horribly inconvenient times (9am-3pm? OH SURE, no worries about that pesky JOB!), require MONTHS and MONTHS of advance planning (NO), and are mostly run by minimum wage hungover college students.
AUGG.
Also, glad I could bring down Misty’s nice, cheery comment. Story of my life. Heh.
It seems like her first choice is just impossible. So, I’d recommend you pick what you can live with of the remaining options and ask her which of those she’d prefer. Maybe there’s a 4-day option in June or July that she’d like better than horse camp. Or, if it must be 7 days, then can she deal with horses?
Are there good options for the 4 night camp? Maybe the solution is since its her first year she can do a four night camp, and then if she loves it next year you two can sit down together earlier in the year and pick out a 7-night.
that was my thought….but then i didnt go away to sleepaway camp until i was about to turn 18, after i had already been away from home for an involuntary hospitalization, and it was a whale camp that i REALLY wanted to go to, and i didnt even LIKE being home, so i may not be the very best person to consult about sleepaway camps.
Organizing summer is such a pain and I only have to do it for 2 kids. The main part that’s still up in the air here is child care during the 3 weeks the younger one has no camp and we’re not on vacation, which I need because I work reduced hours in the summer, but I still work.
And once it’s all organized, then there’s actually doing summer, which has its fun parts to be sure, but every week is different, different camps in different locations with different pickup times, and different combinations of kids at camp and at home. It seems impossible to settle into a routine and I am a creature of routine.
I like Katie’s suggestion. Narrow it down to the best 2 or 3 choices available and let her pick.
I love that Henry goes to day camp all summer because “otherwise life is intolerable.” I felt that way about my foster kids last summer. “Yes, you will go to this 6 week long all-day camp as your summer activity while my daughter does her 1-week science camp as hers and the boys do swim team as theirs!”
I hate when my brain is insisting on listing all the ways I could have prevented this problem in the past instead of coming up with a solution.
Soon, you will have it all planned! And then you will spend the summer driving children around wondering if this is really better than just having them home all day. I’ll answer that for you. Yes. Yes, it is better.
This is exactly why my Elizabeth has done exactly zero scheduled activities in her life. Because I don’t want to deal with all of that. I’m sure by the time she is the age of your children, I will have to break down and do something, but I don’t WANT TO!
We don’t have much around here campwise because it’s the boonies. And what is available seems to operate on a ‘secret handshake’ system. You have to know someone who knows someone to even hear about some things. Some things have flyers but they are no better. The football camp my sons want to go to says “See Mary at Flores House between 6-8 June 14th”. No address, no phone number. I don’t know Mary. I don’t know where Flores House is. There is no specific “Flores House” in the area according to google so it’s a nickname apparently. I assume Mary is the woman who always handles these sign ups and I should just know where she can be found.
I’ve long suspected that it’s a plot to keep newcomers from participating in things. If you didn’t grow up here most of the camp/sports/activity fliers are useless. I’ve lived here 16 years but was 30 & childless when we moved here so I am still utterly clueless about people & locations.
YES.
I’m trying to word my one helpful(?) comment in a way that isn’t douchey but I’m not coming up with anything so I’m just going to be douchetastic in that I’m sort of labeling a child which is bad but I am thinking kindly about said label. Your concern “Or here’s another option, but it’s for grades 2-5 so she’d be in with girls about to go into 6th grade?” feels like a non-concern to me. We’re talking about Girl Scout camp right? By the time that a girl is say 11 and is still doing Girl Scouts (which is WONDERFUL) I think you can safely say that she is the type of girl that you would happily have babysit Elizabeth or take Elizabeth under her wing vs. her being the local deviant whose parents let them hang out in front of the local 7-11 all summer. It might be comforting for there to be kind older girls who are on the verge of babysitting age to be there with the younger girls.
Just another perspective…
This is one of those things, like managing the kids’ clothes, that tends to go completely unappreciated by those who never do it. Seriously, the logistics! I can’t imagine doing it for 5 kids.
Amanda-I actually had the same thought about the older girls. My daughter LOVED being around older girls at Elizabeth’s age-and being at camp with them? She would have been in heaven.
yeah–even bitchy older girls are usually nice to littler girls–and there’s probably a lower concentration of mean girls in girl scouts…
Ugh summer “vacation!” Husband and I both work FT outside the house so oldest has to go somewhere 8 hours a day for 11 weeks during the Summer (thank dog youngest is still in daycare). The first year, I thought I was going to go insane trying to figure out which camps, where, times, etc. I swear, for places that seem to want my money, so many camps make it really difficult to figure out their schedules. Their websites are out of date and/or uninformative, their signup forms are not onilne or unfindable, payment is a mystery. I became extremely hostile.
After two years of trial and error, we’ve thankfully managed in the last three years to settle on a really great series of camps from a place with a good website, excellent communications, and really good programs. Still, every summer feels cobbled together with camps, time with grandparents, and H and I using vacation time. We start planning in January and have to get everything signed up and paid for by early April or else everything goes down the tubes. And don’t even get me started on the cost. Honestly, every spring I feel stressed out and anxious about summer for several weeks. Bah!
Yes, summer activities leave lots of room for fretting! And they are So! Expensive! most of the time. So far, we’ve got 2 different VBS, one Inventor’s Camp and one Drama camp and I’m at my limit of budget. And, YES on the phamplets. FTLOG!
I would call or email the camp and see if you can get on a wait list for the session you want. I know…it means calling people….but I am a camp director for a five night sleep-away church camp session for third and fourth graders every summer, and there are always last minute cancellations. People mix up their schedules or decide to go to the beach with grandparents instead or catch the flu or whatever.
And though I am clearly a biased voice (yay camp! why wouldn’t my mother let me go? etc.), I will say that homesickness is usually not a HUGE problem for us. Some years, a child goes home because they are just not having any fun. Which is fine! But most of the time, it all works out.
yes, I was just going to say this but will chime in here- as a former camp counselor we always had last minute cancellations and things of that nature– so and so has chicken pox and can’t go, that type of thing. I would take the initiative to call her most preferred, booked up choice and see if there’s a way to make that work first, but then I am the kind of person who is not afraid of calling people and getting answers ASAP.
My daughter went to sleep away Girl Scout camp for a full week when she was 8. She did not know a soul at the camp — and was excited about that. She had a blast! Since then, she has refused to sign up for camps “with” her friends. She picks what she wants and if there is someone she knows — great. If not, she doesn’t care because her plan is to make new friends. Last year, she decided she wanted to be at camp for her 11th birthday–despite my best motherly protest. It is her new tradition — she will be away for her birthday again this year. I’m planning to hijack her birthday for myself (since her younger brother crashed my birthday 5 weeks before his due date).
I say let your daughter take the lead on this one!
That is crazy!
Maybe you can try and convince her to do the 4 night camp? I can see where 7 would be a bit much for her age. Sleep away camp can be such a GREAT expirence for just about every kid. My mom got homesick when she went away to college and ended up transferring to a school closer to home which she always kind of regretted. So one of her things with us was that we did sleep away camps when we were growing up. She always made us go to a camp that was a bit ‘rustic’ so that we would get used things not being perfect and being able to go with the flow. I can honestly say that it helped all of us a lot. We counted and my parents have sent their 5 kids to over 50 weeks of camp over probably 25 years. The camp should probably be named for them for the number of checks they’ve written :)
I can’t imagine trying to schedule all that for five kids and yourself. Obviously you’ve done it before, and will do it again, but WOAH. That is a lot.
Though my geeky self is building a scheduling spreadsheet in my head, because I do love me some organization. Especially when it is someone else’s/not in my stress-house.
I’m coming undone over the summer schedules. Why is it that the school district schedules conflicting activities (football camp during summer school time for example)? Also, our days will start at 6 am with a required strength training class for the oldest. I will be doing drop-offs and pick-ups at 6, 7:30, 8:30, 10:30 and 12:30! Not to mention dentist appointments, ortho appointments, sports physicals, violin lessons, etc. I’m not sure how this would happen if I didn’t work for myself/from home.
Right now, I’m wishing I had a sister-wife.