Two years ago my husband texted me to tell us that our oldest son — then age eight — could go to sleep away camp in the summer. In fact, he could have gone the year before; as the camp allows kids to start attending in the year they turn eight (or, the summer before third grade).
This seemed so young to me. When I grew up, I attended Teen Camp and you had to be thirteen in order to go. Eight seemed awfully young to spend six nights away from home, under the care of people we did not know. We asked our son if he wanted to go and of course he did. So, on one Sunday after church, our family of five drove 1.5 hours to the camp property and got him checked in. I wondered if he was nervous, or wanted us to hang out for a bit, but nope. He was excited, he'd found his friends, and he was ready to get his first camp experience started.
The remaining four of us got back into our truck and before I had the chance to turn into a blubbering mess, my younger two kids beat me to it. They were wailing and crying about how much they missed their brother. It was tempting to join them, but then my poor husband would be woefully outnumbered and so I held it together. They cried the entire drive home, which was both sweet and annoying, all at the same time.
I had a meltdown later, in the privacy of my bedroom and as the week went on, I felt better about it. Kids are only allowed to call home if they want to be picked up, so I had no idea if my son was having a good time or not, or if he missed us, or anything.
We picked him up the following Saturday and he'd had the BEST WEEK EVER. He went again last year and his brother was old enough to join him, and he also feels that camp is the BEST THING EVER. They're both going to camp again this year, but in different weeks.
Our youngest — a daughter — will be old enough to attend the same camp next summer, and will be in the same week as our middle child, should she go. I'm just not sure, though. She's my baby, you know? And she likes to have her back rubbed before bed and she can be shy in new situations and, well. It will be up to her, but I'm not going to make her go if she doesn't want to. Camp is something fun and if she doesn't start going for a few years, that's totally okay.
Do your kids go to sleep away camp? Why or why not? What ages were your kids when they started going?
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