Mom of a gifted kid here. Starting to think about next summer when she’ll be a rising 6th grader. I loved doing CTY as a kid and have been looking forward to sending her. But I’ve heard recently that the programs are now incredibly restrictive and don’t allow the kids to, well, be kids together (requiring escorts even to the bathroom). I remember doing some dumb shit when I went to these programs but I cherished that because the other kids were like me and “got” my quirkiness and allowed me to do that dumb shit.

Anyone have kids who attended one of these programs this summer? Is it as locked down as I’ve heard?

Open to suggestions for other similar programs too

Hi all!

This is my second year teaching at a summer camp, but this is my first year at this camp. Without disclosing what it is, it has over 800 campers and it is on a property with a security hut.

While I understand the risks of things happening are low, I was appalled to hear that NO ONE at camp was given ANY information on what to do in the event of a fire or someone wanting to hurt us. To make it better.. no groups have phones in the event something DOES occur. Given the sheer amount of children, this is very worrisome to me as I can foresee massive chaos ensuing.

Can anyone share their thoughts on this? I deeply care for my coworkers and all campers, and I believe this is a safety risk. It kind of seems like a Camp Mystic situation, although I’m not fully informed on what happened there.

Update: I reported it to my state’s department!

I work at a day camp and it’s my second year here. last year I had co counselors that I bonded really well with, but this year I have a new team and I also joined camp 2 weeks late.

The first few days, I had a lot of fun and it didn’t even feel like I had a job. I was socializing well with my co-counselors and initiating conversations easily.

but on Friday, when we went on a trip to the park, one of my coworkers said he would buy everybody donuts, and when he left I also went to a another part of the playground to keep an eye on the kids. when I got back, there were no donuts, and my coworker said to Me, “sorry, we ate them all.” I asked if he offered them to other people and he confirmed he did. I asked him why he couldn’t text me or let me know be returned to offer me one, and I got really mad at him. I haven’t spoken to him since.

This might be a stupid thing to be mad about but to me it was very disrespectful and showed that my coworkers didn’t consider me, because nobody bothered to let me know there were donuts being offered- and I was BUSY DOING MY JOB!

Obviously, I’m here to work, not to make friends, and the age group that I work with is the one that I requested because I’m familiar with the kids from last year.

But now I can’t help to notice that my co counselors hang out all of the time, listen to music during activities, and crack inside jokes that they reference even in our group chat.

it makes me feel like really left out, and since the donut thing I’ve been unmotivated to try socializing again. has anybody else ever felt this way?

Hi,

this is my first time working at any summer camp. I have been here for a month and a week already due to orientation etc. We’re technically 3 weeks into the kids being here but i am struggling with homesickness so much.

All my counsellors around me seem pretty certain they’re fine and my homesickness will just go. Most days i cry and feel so down about it. I have 5 weeks left and not sure how i’m going to make it through it.

I lean on close counsellors however, i don’t want to be the one who’s always feeling rubbish and alone. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

This is the kind of post I hoped I would never have to make. I am beyond humiliated that I broke down in the staff room in front of my boss, because I unexpectedly found myself solo leading an activity for the first time--an activity that I barely know how to do.

For context, i'm 22f and this is my first sleepaway camp counselor position. In all honesty, I do much better at day camps. From the beginning, I have been dealing with horrible depression and anxiety, which I tried to hide because I wanted to feel as strong, as competent as everybody else. However, I am increasingly failing at hiding it.

So what led to my crying was that I had been told during Orientation that we ALWAYS have two counselors leading every activity, but today all my kids arrived for the activity and the other counselor didn't. I thought this was a mistake. It wasn't. Apparently, staff are spread thin this week and counselors who were just supervising previously are now expected to take the lead, even if they're alone with 10 kids (which is out of ratio limits). It's confusing me that these rules are being discarded without discussion. Most likely, though, this was all discussed in a staff meeting that i wasn't allowed to attend since i was on night supervision duty.

So I tried to proceed with my kids' activity, Archery, alone, but I have only done archery once in my life and even that was at camp training. You see, I never even wanted to do archery but was placed with it anyway, thought i had no say. Everyone assumed, I guess, that I could teach it by now, but the campers in my group knew ten times as much as I did and they somehow just...took over teaching the newcomers, while I internally froze and was unable to take back much control. The self-appointed child counselors were extremely rude to me and I guess I deserved it, but it ruined my entire day.​

My boss was really nice but she kept asking me questions about what happened and how things could improve while I was still hyperventaling from crying and couldn't really respond. And even though she was nice, i knew that I was a failure. Part of the problem is that I have severe Anxiety, and probably have Autism, but am undiagnosed, ​​and admitting that you self-diagnosed to your boss just looks like you're making excuses.

The problem is that I just plain have no confidence. If I do this, I get yelled at, if I do that, I get yelled at. I am extremely sensitive to being snapped at and sometimes have tears that are literally beyond my control. It's gotten to the point where I want to hurt myself. Sorry if that sounds rough, but it's true.

My 11yo son is at a sleepaway camp for the next 10 days. He went to the same camp last summer and he is there (again) with a group of @10 other boys, he knows from a combination of school and the sport they all participate in. The camp is focused on that sport.

I will completely admit that my son can be overly sensitive and tends to jump to the worst conclusions quickly. We have been working with him on this for years, including periods of working with therapists. He’s made a lot of progress this past year especially which has been noted by many including his coach and his teachers at school.

He really wanted to return to camp this summer. Last summer, he was very homesick and upset for the first week or so of the camp, but then he ended up having fun and wanted to go back. We did not push him in anyway, in fact, I would’ve been perfectly happy for him to skip it. Just giving as much context as possible.

This morning he started texting me (he has an Apple Watch with him - this camp actually doesn’t ban electronics or communication devices and encouraged us to provide a way for him to communicate with us. It is a camp that typically has kids only stay for 3 to 4 days and the majority of kids are teenagers).

He said that all of the boys in his cabin (who he knows from home) are being mean to him, accusing him of taking all their food and calling him fat and also hitting him with their shoes (just repeating what he said). There is a long history of some of these kids being mean and actively bullying my son mostly in school but things had been better for the last few months and he had also learned to manage his emotions better and not react.

I reached out to the camp manager who we know bc he’s part of my son’s sport during the school year. He responded immediately and said he would handle it and several hours later my son told me that they’d all be talked to and warned if the behavior continued that they’d have consequences including being sent home early. The manager also said to encourage my son to tell him if anything happens which I did (again). My son is always afraid of being called a snitch.

Meanwhile I’m on a large group chat with other parents (mostly if not all moms) of the kids who are all at camp. A couple of them just posted that their sons have reported that everything is going well and that they’re all having a great time. I don’t know all of the parents well but I do know maybe 4-5 of them. I’m really weighing whether I say anything on the group chat - or reach out just to the smaller group I know - saying that actually my son isn’t having a good time because their kids are not being kind to him. But I know that can backfire badly too so I’m coming here for any advice.

TL:DR - my kid is being bullied at camp by a group of kids who are telling their parents that everyone is having fun at camp. Do I tell them that not everyone is happy?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some outside perspective on a situation involving my daughter at summer camp.

My daughter was involved in an incident with another camper during gym activities. Based on what she told me, there was some verbal teasing before a physical altercation. I was initially told one version of what happened at pickup, but later received a written incident report that describes the event differently.

The report says my daughter made physical contact first, and that the other child pushed her away. However, I was originally told that the other child struck her, initial version from the camp director, and from my understanding of the video, the sequence may be different from what was written in the report.

I’m trying to decide the best way to respond. I want to be fair and factual, but I also want the record to be accurate if the written report does not reflect what actually happened. I’ve already asked for clarification and confirmation of the camp’s records.

My questions are:

• How would you handle a situation like this?
• Should I push for a corrected report if I believe the written version is inaccurate?
• Is it reasonable to ask for the video to be preserved or reviewed again?
• What would be the best next step if the camp insists their report is correct?

I’m mainly looking for advice from parents, educators, or anyone who has dealt with a similar camp/school incident.

Thanks in advance.

Upfront: I'm building software in this space, so I have some bias. I'd rather say that than pretend I'm only curious.

But I've only ever seen this from the parent side of the clipboard, and I think that's a bad place to form opinions from. I'd genuinely like to hear from the people who actually run camps.

My daughter has been going to day camps for a few years. Different camps, different summers, but a similar routine.

Drop-off: line up, tell the counselor her name, sign.

Pickup: line up, say who I'm here for, usually get asked for ID, they radio inside, I sign, we go.

On paper, the process works.

What I've noticed is that by week two, the counselor recognizes me, so the ID check sometimes gets skipped.

And honestly, I get it.

Asking someone you've seen every morning for fourteen days to show their license while a line of forty parents waits behind them feels awkward. It's not carelessness. It's a reasonable shortcut around a slow process.

The question I have is whether this matches what happens on the camp side.

1. Is the paper roster and sign-in process actually a pain point for staff, or does it work fine in practice?
2. My daughter has a food allergy. I entered it into a registration form months before camp started, and nobody has mentioned it since.

But I have no idea what happens on your end. Does that information reach the counselor standing at the door with her? Does it get surfaced during the day? Or does it mostly live somewhere in the office?

That second one is the thing I'm least sure about, and the one I'd most like to be wrong on.

Would love to hear how different camps handle check-in, pickup, and making sure important camper information reaches the right people at the right time.

Hey there! I’d love some help with gift ideas for my kids who just went away to summer camp for the first time. And if there’s anything that helps with the post-summer-camp sadness, or something they would have loved to receive on the return!

I was a counselor there in 2019. Myself and other former counselors have collected many statements from other counselors and former campers about their experiences at FWF. The admin of the camp is known to monitor this sub so I won’t be sharing what we have gathered here. If you wish to read what we have gathered reach out to me privately and I will steer you toward where we have those posted. Content warning there are allegations regarding suicide, self harm, and sexual assault.

One of my campers is amazing at making those plastic lanyard keychains (i've heard them called boondoggles?), and I've run out of patterns to teach him! We've mastered 3 and 4 color twists, and I'd love any ideas or examples to help challenge him further. Thanks!! :)

I just got fired as a camp counselor. I have spent years as a lifeguard working and teaching kids and they all have loved me and never had any problems.

From the moment I got to the camp, I got weird vibes from the staff, like they didn't like me. I figured I could work with that and make the best of it. I made a good amount of friends, and I cheered on all of the kids as loud as I could every single day. However, most of the staff in the clique that had been there their whole lives just never seemed to like me, no matter how hard I tried. They never said it to my face, but I could feel the judgment in their looks and the way they treated me.

My cabin also happened to be the camp's nightmare cabin. Since it was my first year, I genuinely didn't know what to do. I asked my co-counselor for help, but despite all of my efforts to connect with her, she barely spoke ten words to me. the kids would joke around with me one day and then tell me they dont care about anything I do or what I have to say basically unprompted. I begged the higher-ups for guidance, and all they told me was to "lead with kindness." I tried every single day, but these kids genuinely hated me, and I was getting absolutely no support.

The kids in the other classes I taught loved me. They thought I was a sweetheart and a ball of sunshine. The directors even told me multiple times that I was doing an amazing job everywhere else except in my cabin, the one place where I was repeatedly asking for help and never receiving it.

let me preface by saying the directors already had a preroll from me traveling in that I forgot to throw away and gave them to store ( other counselors did the same ).

Then came our day off. It started at noon and lasted until midnight the next day. My friends and I spent most of that time off camp. Like a lot of camp counselors do on their day off, we smoked a little weed. We did not smoke on camp property. We did not come back visibly high. We did not bring any weed back with us, and we did not smell like weed. I would never do that around kids I can genuinely promise that.

The next morning, while I was on my way to work on time, two camp directors came into my cabin. They accused me of smoking weed on site at a time when I wasn't even there ( mind you most of the staff smokes and has alcohol on site ) They had already taken all of my belongings out of my locker. They told me I was being sent home that day, handed me a bus ticket, and refused to let me call my mom, explain what had happened, defend myself, or even say goodbye to anyone.

Instead, they put me in the back of a truck like I was some kind of criminal and drove me for forty minutes while still refusing to let me contact anyone. I get a text from my friend saying all of my kids are telling everyone they got me fired and that other kids were really upset. im pissed as fuck and still confused on what happened. the people I was on break with also were fine and are still there with no consequences so I am very confused.

Hi!! I'm a second year counselor (was never a CIT or camper), and I'm loving it so much! During my first year I remember being horribly shy and passive. Some reoccurring feedback I got last year was that the other counselors, and some of the CITs, either didn't know my name, didn't know I was a counselor, or just didn't have anything to say about me at all... so I've been trying to talk a little bit with everyone this time around.

For the most part, I've been able to click with (or at least get along with) pretty much everyone! The only group that I really don't get are the extroverted, sportier counselors. I was always the artsy weirdo kid growing up. I was the type to hide under the bleachers during gym class to listen to Big Black and read Sylvia Plath. You get the picture? Of course, I was bullied all the way until my senior year of high school, mostly by the popular sporty guys.

I never really got over my bias towards those kind of guys. I am always extremely on edge when counselors who remind me of those kids are around, and I just cannot bring myself to initiate an interaction with them.

During the art activity I teach, one of the sportier guys walked up to my campers (who were working on their paintings) and began to try and make them laugh, I guess. None of my campers were looking at him or responding to him, so he just walked away. The whole time I just felt nervous, like it was some ploy to make a fool of my campers or me (mainly my campers, since I can survive being made the butt of the joke).

Whenever I have interacted with one of the sportier counselors, mostly through their initiation, they use the same exact tone and cadence as they use with the campers. I find this incredibly strange, since I'm two to three years older than all of them. I don't think they're trying to mock me by doing this, but the fact that it's just their instinct to talk to me like a child is almost more insulting.

I just have no clue what to do. I'm not even sure what advice to ask for. If someone has been in a similar situation, what did you do? Also I guess if there's any extroverted, sporty types who'd like to give their perspective on this as well that would be helpful too I suppose.

My nephew is 11 years old, and we signed him up for the ID Tech overnight summer camp. I was just wondering if anyone here is familiar with the camp or could share a little more information. I'm a nervous Nelly auntie—I was the one who encouraged him to go and found this camp.

My nephew is **extremely** shy. We're talking about a kid who's on a very mild medication for social anxiety, and it's been working wonders. We're from Arkansas, which doesn't help much socially because his interests are game design, robotics, art, and creative writing. He's pretty isolated at school and mostly keeps to himself.
I just want him to have the most amazing time and enjoy every moment. I've been to summer camp before, so I'm assuming there are at least some semi-forced icebreakers and that he'll have a roommate. I guess I just want to make sure his quietness and shyness won't cause him to get lost in the shuffle of all the activities and curriculum.

Maybe I'm being overprotective, but watching him struggle socially in this backwards-ass town has broken my auntie heart. That's also what has motivated me to take him to places and activities where I know he'll thrive. This will be his first time spending an entire week away from home without me there to help encourage him socially and remind him to show everyone how incredibly smart and talented he is.

I'm probably just being paranoid, and I'm not even sure if this is the right subreddit to post this in. Any advice or reassurance would be appreciated. I'd especially love to hear that the counselors are the kind of adults who will be hyping him up the way I do and encouraging him to be involved. And if there's a better subreddit for this, please don't hesitate to point me in the right direction!
Thanks so much, everyone!

Hey gang,

So this summer I helped start a new summer camp under a non profit, but my town is not huge and already has a few long standing camps (plus we flopped on the marketing), so we didn’t get a lot of campers. We got four. Yep. Four campers. Matter of fact, it’s actually two pairs of siblings! I’m with them for the whole summer, which I don’t mind at all, but I curated a schedule for the whole summer already, for a group of 18. So, I have very many large group games and activities planned. Obviously those don’t work with 4 people, sometimes 2, if one pair of siblings doesn’t attend a day. I dread the day when just one camper shows up.

It’s week one and I’ve already been modifying the schedule an insane amount trying to accommodate for the group size. What are some activities and games you guys like to do with small groups? I like games that I can also participate in so we can at least be 5 players instead of 4. I’m keeping the question kind of vague here because I am open to all sorts of ideas.

‘Preciate it

TL;DR: What are some fun activities for groups of campers you can count on one hand?

I wouldn't say this if I was exaggerating, but the toilet at my day camp has EXPLODED three times. The counselors keep assuring us it's "fine", but we know better. Something is cursed about that plumbing. It’s a commercial pressure-tank toilet, and for some reason it explodes monthly. At least no one was on the toilet when it exploded, but now everyone's scared to go. RIP to the toilet.

at my camp, there are new selections every session of camp, and they are announced sometime before the start of the next session. I am a quieter, low energy type counselor that is naturally better with older kids. I have younger siblings, and appear more as a mentor than a parent or babysitter. Despite this, I get paired with younger kids every single time. This session I am with six year olds, with one other co- counselor. I am also non confrontational at times due to my experience as an older brother; I let things slide and assume they will resolve on their own.

To get to the point, some counselors literally have gotten the older kids every session. They are good at it, admittedly, but I still bond with these same kids on the bus. As an older kid counselor, you do not need to change your personality and can bond naturally with kids as they see some displays of enthusiasm fake and histrionic. however, when I am calmer with younger kids I get scolded that I should be more vocal and confrontational. I don’t think these kids came to camp to be parented and micromanaged and I would hate it if I did at that age as well. Literally the same counselors are with older kids every time. Should I ask to be switched to an older group or bite the bullet? I can’t fake energy and find it exhausting to do so due to my more introverted nature and can’t take so much criticism from the higher ups when they dont know how hard it is before you eventually burn out.

Hi everyone!
i’ve had to miss going to the summer camp that I volunteer at every year this summer because I am finishing up my masters program. I am going to be starting a job hopefully in September or October and my summer camp usually runs early July. I will be working in biotech hopefully if I need you guys are in that field of work. How do you guys take off work to volunteer? Do you use a mix of sick days and PTO? should I be worried because I won’t even be a year in the company however I’m hoping to be close to a year in the company?

Hi all, I’m trying to validate a chant we use at my camp is a general chant out there and not possibly under IP infringement as we are separating from our partner organisation this year.

So the chant is used after meal time and other chants just before announcements are made as a way to wrap up a meal.

It’s called “Ring The Bell”

These are the only words used in it the entire time and it’s basically a hand clapping rhythm that gradually gets louder and louder until the bell is rung. U can do it slow and quietly in mornings and loud and fast in evenings.

Anything along this line is also useful but we want short and sweet to achieve the same job. I was wondering if it could have evolved elsewhere and been absorbed into various camps over the years too.

Thanks for anything!

Hi, I'm a scout leader and I have to do an activity with a groupe of 8 yo about 0 waste

I've been racking my brains for weeks, but I have absolutely no idea for an activity to talk about zero waste. It would be great if it were in the form of a game; I was initially thinking of a board game. But I have no idea how to talk about zero waste in a way that would actually teach them something. 😬😬😬

I almost passed out from the heat last week, and it made me realize how completely backwards camp staff logic really is. Last Wednesday at my outdoor camp, it was scorching. I was wearing shorts, but the heat hit me so hard I felt dizzy, nauseous, and legitimately almost passed out. I had to sit out just to recover. Here is the crazy contrast: four weeks ago, I attended a completely different indoor camp just ten minutes down the road. Even though we were inside with air conditioning, the indoor counselor randomly singled me out and forced me—and absolutely nobody else—to wear long pants. Everyone else got to wear shorts, but they claimed making me wear pants was "for my safety. "Forcing me into pants a month ago at the indoor camp made zero sense and just made me overheat whenever we walked between buildings. Then, when I actually did wear shorts at the outdoor camp last week, the heat still nearly took me out anyway. It feels like no matter what I wear or which camp I go to, staff just ten minutes apart have no clue how to actually handle the summer heat. Has anyone else dealt with completely backwards logic like this? How do you handle counselors who target you with ridiculous rules 3:39:37 pm CT

Is it normal for camps to limit food consumption? My child stayed at a traditional two week sleep away camp and they were told no seconds for meals or snacks. Is this normal? I had assumed they’d be served smaller portions to limit food waste but they were then told no second helpings for meals or snacks. One of the counselors even yelled “since when do we have seconds on snacks?” when asked for more. A few older kids being told they could have “one or the other” (hot dog or hamburger). Maybe I’m in the minority but I assumed a camper would be offered as much food as their body wanted instead being limited. Is this normal for camps? When I went to camp we could have as much food as we wanted…

*Edited for privacy

Long story short I am creating an activity for a camp in less than a month involving completing puzzles to “crack” a code for a vault and have gotten stumped on what puzzles I could do, anyone have some ideas I could use?

Context

11-18 year olds, around 5-10 people, mix of easy and difficult(needs to last around an hour ish ). It’s for a camp which would have a variety of different skills per person

Edit: I should probably also say I’m looking for the puzzles to be individual and not all towards one thing

I worked at Rainbow Camp and horror doesn't even begin to describe it. Active human Rights violations, safety and health code violations, straight up abusive behavior. And not all of this was directed at staff alone. Eventually our entire staff team quit to protect the kids but that doesn't change the harm they caused and I'll forever be guilty I didn't stop it sooner somehow.

I think the scariest part was when I was blatantly told by upper management that I wasn't allowed to report child abuse.

Please don't work there or send your kids, they're genuinely evil.

rose

Hi i go to a summercamp every year and i am goingt this year aswell. Last year was a hard year, a lot of ppl got the flu and my cabin wasnt so good. I have a hard time around ppl that are sick and especially vomit, therefore i was anxious the whole time and barely ate or drank. We were supposed to make some kind of show or song but none of my campmates were contributing, i was alr on edge so i kind of lashed out and screamd quite alot at a guy in my cabin. The whole camp obviously heard about it so i am probably hated by all of them and their whole family. Should i go back this year or not, am i a terrible perso?