Second Job to Afford Summer Camp?

 

Dinosaur camp? Why?

- Anonymous

Posted 06/28/08 01:19 PM

 

 

I work and help organize children’s camps from time to time. A huge part of the recent seemingly unreal increase in the cost of camp is basically because of the increase in liability protection we must now have. Now, if little Jenny or Johnny stubs their toe we may be in for a 6 year court battle due to the emotional distress that the stubbed toe caused the entire family of Jenny or Johnny. We also have increased costs because we must do extensive background checks on every adult who might have any kind of contact with the children while at camp and that includes everybody even the janitors. We also must pay a nurse to be on hand the entire time the children are there to handle all the minor accidents and also to distribute all those medications children are now taking. Sometimes we have to have 2 nurses if we have a large camp. When I began working children’s camps 20 years ago we had no fear of a lawsuit from parents for any normal childhood accident. If Johnny or Jenny stubbed a toe or even broke a bone or needed stitches we just called the parent’s and they took care of it. When I started working children’s camps 20 years ago we might have had 5 children out of a hundred who had medication to deal with and the parent’s were OK with a counselor giving the medications to the children and did not demand a licensed nurse. Now 9 out of 10 children are on some kind of meds many of them are taking multiple medications on very strict schedules. When I started working camps 20 years ago we had maybe 2 children out of 100 who might have some kind of allergy and the child was expected to know what they were allergic to and avoid it themselves. Now about 3/4 of the children we have at camp have allergies and parents expect us to be the ones to be sure that their chidlren are not exposed to what they are allergic to. Many work hours must be paid for even prior to camp for a nurse & dietician to help prepare a menu that will not get us sued due to allergies and that the menu must also provide the nutrition children need. When I started working camps 20 years ago the college

- momof9

Posted 06/29/08 11:38 AM

 

 

Seriously mom0f 9 - that was so funny! And true…of course that is why these things are so expensive…that should have been the real address of the blog post. We all know why they are so expensive, it is great to laugh about the why!

- That was funny! Mom of 9

Posted 07/01/08 01:57 AM

 

 

Summer camps are just overpriced babysitters.

- Anon

Posted 07/01/08 10:45 AM

 

 

You know… maybe they need two summer camps. Each would offer a similar camp experience. One would be for the physically delicate, mentally unstable, heavily medicated, multiply allergic so called “children” and their litigious parents. They could pay $5000 per week. Then, we could have camp for my kids and their ilk… physically tough, unmedicated, low-level or no allergy, mentally stable, well socialized children and their non-litigous parents. Camp for these families would be around $500 per week.

- flipper

Posted 07/12/08 11:02 AM