Day Camp or Day Care?

[CAMPFRIEND]

I am just wondering, how many parents use your day camp as day care for their children. We try to do all that we can not to have our camp feel like a day care, but parents just need a place for their kids to go. It also seems that parents look for the cheapest price not the quality of the program. So do you ever think that you are more of a babysitter than a camp counselor?
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[Dave]

A lot of our campers have a parent at home all day, and they send them just for fun. But I guess there are some who use our camp as a day care. But if we're talking about price, I have no idea why they'd send their kids to our camp for day care. Why pay thousands of dollars for day care when you can pay hundreds. So I guess most are there for the camp, not the day care.

We do have early morning and late afternoon care for kids whose parents either leave early for work, come home late, or both.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I know this was posted a long time ago but I was just thinking that I also have campers who's parents stay at home but send their kids to camp just to get rid of them for the week. I am not sure how some parents think. I know that when I am a parent, I want to make sure that my kids get a camp experience but if I can stay home with them I will. If I stay in camping I am sure my kids will spend a lot of time at camp!

[Skater Bubbles]

At the day camp I worked at about 50% of our kids were there for day care and the other half stay at home mom's just wanted a break and something fun for their kids to do, but a lot of time we felt like babysitters, we even chenged the way that parents checked in and out of our program so it became less of a daycare feel.

[rockinsmiles]

I think the campers that come almost all summer for day camp are being there more for a fun "day care". I dont know how much sense that just made. Anyways even though I dont work in the day camp part of camp I some times get a sense that it is like a day care for the kids. However, I dont get the sensation that the counselors feel like they are working at a day care or are being babysitters. I've also known that campers will to the overnight part of camp and want to come back, I figure for money reasons though they cant but they can come to the day camp. That is kind of my perception though so I could be totally off.

[CAMPFRIEND]

At the day camp I worked at about 50% of our kids were there for day care and the other half stay at home mom's just wanted a break and something fun for their kids to do, but a lot of time we felt like babysitters, we even chenged the way that parents checked in and out of our program so it became less of a daycare feel.

What did you do to change your check-in and out? I am looking for new ideas.

[Dave]

I don't think our camp is used as a "day care". I mean, I'm sure some parents might use it as that, but the majority don't. Mainly because our camp is so expensive. Not only do you have to pay a whole lot to send the kids to camp, but you also have to have a membership at the local JCC (which is very expensive). So I doubt many parents, unless they were filthy rich, would spend all that money to send their kids to a day camp as a "day care".

[Fleur]

The situation with my camp seems a lot like Dave's. I feel that some parents use our camp as a "day care", but that's not the majority. There are some kids who are there all summer, who continually complain about how much they hate camp, and whose parents you never see. But most of our campers are generally excited to be there. We also have several cabins composed of older campers who are at the age where they'd be able to stay at home on their own if they wanted. If I were a kid, I'd rather be at camp playing world cup soccer and recording CDs than staying at home alone or tagging along with my parents :)

[CAMPFRIEND]

I think for a lot of the older campers they could stay at home but their parents don't trust them. So the question comes back is it day care for them? My hope is that I never work at a day care. I want for all of my campers to get the feel of camp. I also think that we all do a lot more than what they would ever do at a day care..

[Skater Bubbles]

What did you do to change your check-in and out? I am looking for new ideas.
Well before we had the parents sign the kids in and out with a date and time, whihc gave the camp a really day care feeling liek the paretns could just drop the kids off anytime and we would watch them. It switched to a counselor check in system where the counselors had to know there group of campers and they would have to check them in on their sheet. It gave it a bit more of a CAMP feeling to it a little less day care!!

[Dave]

The situation with my camp seems a lot like Dave's. I feel that some parents use our camp as a "day care", but that's not the majority. There are some kids who are there all summer, who continually complain about how much they hate camp, and whose parents you never see. But most of our campers are generally excited to be there. We also have several cabins composed of older campers who are at the age where they'd be able to stay at home on their own if they wanted. If I were a kid, I'd rather be at camp playing world cup soccer and recording CDs than staying at home alone or tagging along with my parents :)
I think that the kids who don't want to be there are being set for "day care" rather than "day camp". I had one of those kids in my bunk last summer. He'd always say he hated camp, he didn't want to be there, and that his parents forced him.