If you were out shopping this week you should have noticed the same scene playing out in store after store. Parents with children, bochurim, and teenagers of sleepaway camp age were filling carts with cases of instant soup, boxes of cereal, pickles, croutons, snacks, nosh drinks, and enough food to stock a pantry. Many were walking out with bills of $150 to $300 just for the food they're schlepping up to camp.
And that's before the camp canteen. Parents are expected to load money onto camp accounts, only to replenish them within the first week because "everyone else is buying," "I'm still hungry," or "the canteen has better food." Today's camp canteens aren't just selling chips, licorice, ices, and slush like they once did. Many now offer full takeout-style menus.
Add to that the extra clothing, equipment, and countless other camp expenses, all on top of camp tuition that already runs into the thousands of dollars.
When did all of this become normal?
Three weeks away from home is supposed to be an experience. Camps are not starving children. They are well fed, mostly. Yet somehow we've created the expectation that every camper also needs to bring an entire pantry from home and have unlimited spending money waiting for them.
And it's not just sleepaway camp. Day camp has become the same. Before every trip, children "need" special nosh, snacks, drinks, and treats. Every evening throughout the summer, parents can be seen negotiating in the snack aisle as kids bargain over which candy or treats they'll get only to repeat the same conversation a few days later.
So who's responsible? The camps? The parents? Society? Probably a little of each.
The real issue is that the bar keeps moving. What was once considered an extra has become an expectation, and today's expectation quickly becomes tomorrow's necessity. Families feel pressured to keep up, even when they can't comfortably afford it.
Maybe it's time to ask whether all of these extras are really making our children's summers better or simply making parents spend more, stress more, and sometimes even go into debt just to keep up with what has somehow become "normal."
we must listen to daas Torah
ReplyDeleteIt's a small price to pay to keep them happy. Spend it with love
ReplyDeleteThen u want to know why your child is a brat
ReplyDeleteIf adults are blowing money on lavish parties with meat boards alcohol and mixologists or shaitles for 10k and designer clothing why should children expect to have self control and not want everything they desire
ReplyDeleteWe allowed our children to spend $50-$60 at the grocery and gave them $40 to bring to camp. I hope there are many parents that do the same.
ReplyDeleteMy children were taught to understand that camp is expensive and that they have to deal with life - the food that is served etc. If children aren't taught to deal with life when they are old enough to go to camp - when will they be taught?? Will it be after they are married and in debt?
My daughter used her own money for canteen ($50) and we gave her about $75 to spend at the grocery store. Don't kvetch - act.
DeleteAnd you want to know what else? My daughter paid for half her camp stay with her babysitting money.
DeleteIts NOT a camp problem
ReplyDeleteIts a lack of discipline in our culture thanks to the wokeness that infiltrated the frum lifestyle
Give your kids carrots and celery sticks and see how far that goes
ReplyDeleteThe amount of candy nosh and junk food available in stores is insane. Large supermarkets have at least two full aisles dedicated to it, plus end caps and displays at the registers. There's also a constant stream of new candies and products coming out.
ReplyDeleteWhat's still shocking is the price of some of these candies and sour gummies. They're literally made from sugar, water, and a few other cheap ingredients, yet they cost over $10 sometimes as much as a piece of meat for the chulent