{"id":732,"date":"2012-06-28T17:46:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T17:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.positivelyparenting.com\/?p=732"},"modified":"2015-12-04T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T17:49:12","slug":"my-kid-is-too-young-for-camp-or-is-she","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlparentcoach.com\/new\/parenting\/my-kid-is-too-young-for-camp-or-is-she\/","title":{"rendered":"My kid is too young for camp. Or is she?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I stood and stared at my husband.\u00a0 He had just suggested that my barely-turned-eight-year-old-daughter go to a sleep-away camp for a week this summer.\u00a0 It is a camp that our church runs and has been going strong for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe priest and his wife are going with all of their kids, Meg.\u00a0 As well as all her friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

I continued staring, with only a rare blink to break it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she is ready and would love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More staring.<\/p>\n

Ready, huh?\u00a0 I did want any great parent coach does when she wants back up for her opinions: calls her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes, Meg, you didn\u2019t go to camp until you were ten or eleven.\u00a0 Eight is so young\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Yes, I agreed completely.\u00a0 My mother and I were in a fear spiral together, and I fully embraced it.\u00a0 My daughter was completely too young, and I immediately kyboshed the whole idea.<\/p>\n

So, imagine my surprise when, weeks later, I stood in a circle of three or four school moms, and all of them were sending their eight-year-olds to sleep-away camp.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.\u00a0 \u201cWell,\u201d I started justifying to myself, \u201call of those children aren\u2019t first-born.\u00a0 They are ready because they have older siblings\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

My wheels started turning, though.\u00a0 Deep down, yes, I think six may be a little young for two weeks of sleep-away camp, but your average, well adjusted eight year old might be just fine.\u00a0 I kept wondering, though: are more and more younger kids (nine and under) going to sleep-away camp?\u00a0 Was my thinking wrong?\u00a0 Should<\/em> younger children be going to sleep-away camp?<\/p>\n

I needed proof.\u00a0 I needed data.\u00a0 I found myself on the American Camp Association (ACA) website, expecting to find that no, young children don\u2019t attend camp.\u00a0 I was quite wrong.<\/p>\n

When camp directors were asked about enrollment in Spring 2012: \u201cCompared to last year at this time, what is your best guess at how enrollment in each of the following AGE GROUPS is progressing?\u201d The answers were surprising!\u00a0 42.5% of camp directors reported that they the \u201cnine and under\u201d were ahead of the prior year! Even in 2005, 58.1% camp directors were anticipating that the \u201cnine and under\u201d were going to stay \u201cabout the same\u201d as the previous year.\u00a0 Okay, what about 2009, when so people started to panic about money and job security?\u00a0 Surely, people would not spend money to return their young children to camp? \u00a039.8% of camp directors reported that, in fact, enrollment was about the same for the \u201cnine and under\u201d campers.<\/p>\n

Huh, okay.\u00a0 So, it seems that, at least for the last seven years, a healthy group of nine and under campers have been attending (and re-attending) sleepover camps.<\/p>\n

Yes, I also found that the recession had hurt enrollment of younger children, as well as sleep-away campers across the board, but the conclusion was clear: young children have been<\/em> and are going<\/em> to sleep away camps.<\/p>\n

Not only this, but an advanced search on the ACA \u201cFind a Camp\u201d section yielded a significant number of camps for seven, eight, and nine-year-olds!<\/p>\n

For a two-week, overnight camp, co-ed, and in the Northeast Region, I found:<\/p>\n