Day Camp/Sleep-away Camp Tuition

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  • #597475
    a mamin
    Participant

    Everyone wants to be paid upfront. Day camps, sleepaway camps. how do you all do it??? so overwhelming, all the bills and shopping??

    #981698

    a mamin- have emunah!

    know that hashem will help!

    #981699
    commonsense
    Participant

    when you figure it out please let me know! 🙂

    #981700
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Everyone wants to be paid upfront.

    Do you blame them?

    If you can afford to spread the payments out, ask if they would consider post-dated checks or credit card authorizations.

    I know people who have taken out low interest promotional credit card loans when a big expense came up (0% interest with a 2% or 3% fee).

    Hatzlocha!

    #981701
    a mamin
    Participant

    I end up giving post dated checks and scringing all summer to cover them!

    #981702
    tomim tihye
    Member

    Not every kid really needs to go to camp a whole summer. I send each child for only as many weeks as I feel they need, not just want. I will not go into debt or leave my babies with a sitter for more hours than I already must to give my kids the luxury of camp. Last summer, I sent two kids for only 2 weeks.

    That is my current position on this topic, subject to change at some point.

    #981703
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    I end up giving post dated checks and scringing all summer to cover them!

    You’re to be admired for your mesiras nefesh for your kids (also for your creativity in language).

    You should just realize, though that you’re not really paying “up front”.

    #981704
    a mamin
    Participant

    They request it all paid up before the summer starts! i cant do that unfortunately.keeping my kids home is not an option. hats off to those of you who are able to entertain their children at home in the summer.

    #981705
    a mamin
    Participant

    Boro park girl; you are to be commended for your comment!! thanks for the chiizuk!

    #981706
    mamashtakah
    Member

    Camp is a luxury, not a necessity.

    #981707
    a mamin
    Participant

    I dont know where you live, but around here, everyone goes to camp!

    #981708
    mamashtakah
    Member

    I dont know where you live, but around here, everyone goes to camp!

    Kids have to go to school. Despite the fact that you say “everyone goes to camp,” school tuition comes first. That makes camp a luxury.

    #981709
    elicpa
    Member

    mamashtakah

    Kids don’t have to go to school, they can be home educated. (Chabad shluchim among others do it) That makes school a luxury. I guess clothing, food, mortgage payments/rent, health insurance, cars and car insurance, electricity, water, gas, cell phones, cleaners and medicines are luxuries too. Or is it only camp? Everything is relative, what might be a luxury for some might be a necessity for others (and for the children themselves).

    #981710
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    The camps certainly view it as a luxury, entitling them to charge what they want without any scholarships (not to say that no camps give scholarships, but it’s less frequent than in schools). For many families, however, it is close to a necessity, based on the individual child and the family situation.

    #981711
    a mamin
    Participant

    Elicpa; very well put!

    #981712
    nachas
    Member

    So what do you say to a child when they come to you and ask to go to camp because all their friends are going and they want to go also but you just cant afford it? I know my child is a very good child and aidel but I see the bitterness coming out because she will be left home when everyone she is friends with is away.

    Elicpa that was really well put.

    #981713
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    So what do you say to a child when they come to you and ask to go to camp because all their friends are going and they want to go also but you just cant afford it?

    The same thing that you tell them when they ask why their friends have a nicer house, better clothes and fancier toys.

    The Wolf

    #981714
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    So what do you say to a child when they come to you and ask to go to camp because all their friends are going and they want to go also but you just cant afford it?

    No.

    In addition, perhaps you are living in the wrong neigborhood if everyone else has wealth and you do not. This issue will continue to raise itself.

    #981715
    miritchka
    Member

    elicpa: well written! but i have a few comments:

    maybe for shluchim it’s not a necessity, I could be wrong but i seem to recall that the gedolim did say that we should send our girls to Bais Yaakov (Sara Schneirer times). I believe that the same goes for boys as well.

    Cell phones for children under a certain age can be considered a luxury – what happened to pay phones? Schools still have pay phones and even stores are nice enough to allow use of their phones (sometimes for 25 cents).

    A second car can also be considered a luxury in most cases-what happened to public transportation or walking?!

    #981716
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    So what do you say to a child when they come to you and ask to go to camp because all their friends are going and they want to go also but you just cant afford it?

    I have another suggestion. Go to your local shul and start asking for Tzedaka during Chazoras HaShatz. Or better yet, suggest that your child do it.

    #981717
    a mamin
    Participant

    Wolf and GAW: How many children in your neighborhood are sitting home this summer , not going to either a day camp or sleepaway camp, with both parents working???

    #981718
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    Wolf and GAW: How many children in your neighborhood are sitting home this summer , not going to either a day camp or sleepaway camp, with both parents working???

    1: We have a “low cost” day camp (I think it runs about 75$ a week) run by a local institution.

    2: I think you have hit the heart of the matter. School with tuition discount is viewed as discounted babysitting, and people expect the same from camp.

    Might I suggest if you and your school feel that camp is critical, ask them to fit the bill. I have a relative that did exactly that, and the school paid for the teen to go to camp.

    How old is the child in question, and what do you do erev Yom Tov when the same problem pops up (no school, but parents are working)? Some additional info might help with a real solution.

    #981719
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Wolf and GAW: How many children in your neighborhood are sitting home this summer , not going to either a day camp or sleepaway camp, with both parents working???

    I have no idea, but that doesn’t affect the question I answered. I didn’t answer the question about whether or not to send a kid to camp. I answered the question of what do you say to the kid who sees his/her friends going to camp and asks why s/he can’t go too. I stand by my answer — at some point kids need to learn that some families are wealthier than others and can simply afford nicer/better things — including camps.

    Whether or not kids should be sitting at home because their parents can’t afford camp is a different question which I did not address.

    The Wolf

    #981720
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    I have another suggestion. Go to your local shul and start asking for Tzedaka during Chazoras HaShatz. Or better yet, suggest that your child do it.

    I’ve decided this is too harsh on my part. My point is that the child should earn the money needed if they really want to go.

    #981721
    a mamin
    Participant

    My children are in the range of 7-30. All of them have attended various camps Baruch Hashem throughout the years. I have never had to keep them home because we couldn’t afford it, Baruch Hashem. I only said that it was difficult to arrange. I may have sent to sleepaway later than others but they get their eventually.

    #981722
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    My children are in the range of 7-30. All of them have attended various camps Baruch Hashem throughout the years. I have never had to keep them home because we couldn’t afford it, Baruch Hashem. I only said that it was difficult to arrange. I may have sent to sleepaway later than others but they get their eventually.

    So no solution is needed.

    #981723
    a mamin
    Participant

    Gaw;; definitely too harsh for me!! i pray we never would have to ask our children to go collecting!! btw i dont like teenagers making their own money too much because some of them think they could spend it as they wish, without any approval from their parents.

    #981724
    elicpa
    Member

    a mamin & nachas

    thank you

    miritchka

    thank you

    re:your comments

    1. you’re correct, the gedolim did say to send to school but only because a majority of parents weren’t able to educate their children at home properly. Yes, i’m being a little sarcastic. No child in 2011 should be educated at home for educational, social and other reasons except in very rare circumstances(shluchim are a rare circumstance). My point was it’s not black and white that camp is a luxury. Perhaps we can wear sheets and not buy clothing. 🙂 Many things are a neccessity.

    2. I meant cell phones for adults. I agree that children should not have cellphones. Though today some might say for safety..u see, its not black and white. It depends where, who and why.

    3. Depends where you live. Some communities can’t walk or take public transportation into Lakewood, Monsey or Brooklyn or XXXX. One parent might be driving one way and the other the other way, so as i said, what might be a luxury for one might be a neccessity for another.

    #981725
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    btw i dont like teenagers making their own money too much because some of them think they could spend it as they wish, without any approval from their parents

    Interesting point that might make a good thread. I’d have to think about it.

    #981726
    ZeesKite
    Participant

    Hello elicpa,

    Are you new here? (relation to the famed eclipse?)

    #981727
    EzratHashem
    Member

    Much rather have them in camp with structured activity, exercise and healthy social interactions, than staying home and using computer for too long because of boredom.

    #981728
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    btw i dont like teenagers making their own money too much because some of them think they could spend it as they wish, without any approval from their parents

    Interesting point that might make a good thread. I’d have to think about it.

    I’ve thought about it, and I agree, unless the money is put away for the future.

    However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions.

    #981729
    veteran
    Member

    “Hello elicpa,

    Are you new here? (relation to the famed eclipse?) “

    Haha- I also made the mistake of reading his name as eclipse. I am slightly dyslexic. The name is (I believe) Eli CPA, which has nothing to do with an eclipse.

    Are you also dyslexic? It would be good to get diagnosed now, so that if you have problems reading in 2nd grade you will be able to deal with them.

    #981730
    eclipse
    Member

    elicpa….wow, that’s interesting. Is veteran’s guess correct?

    #981731
    eclipse
    Member

    bump

    #981732
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    You wanna know if a poster is dyslexic?

    #981733
    🐵 ⌨ Gamanit
    Participant

    I do think that it’s important for a teen to be doing what most of their friends are doing if possible. When I first went to camp, my mother paid for the first month, the second month I paid for by working in the camp. Working within the camp gave me a chance to be with my friends without it being an expense for my mother. On teenagers earning money, i think that it’s a great thing. It teaches them the value of money. A parent does not have to allow the teen to bring things into the house, or let them do what they want. Earning their own money though will allow the teen to make the poor choices needed to learn what the right ones are. It’s better for them to learn that as a teenager then at a time when they really need the money.

    #981734
    from Long Island
    Participant

    I live in a mixed neighborhood meaning people living paycheck to paycheck and people with alot of money.

    I made sure my children understood, at a young age, constantly reinforced, that we/they can’t always have what we want. That mom and dad work very hard to take care of their family. Sometimes all my kids were able to go to sleep away camp all summer, sometimes they went for half a summer and often they stayed home, either in day camp,or working in one.

    This sense of entitlement has got to stop !! Part of bringing up children is teaching them values. They need to understand family finances, not the dollar and cents, but the structure, the order of importance. First tuition, then mortgage, then food and insurance and then everything else !! Take them food shopping, show them the bill, have them figure out the yearly cost. Show them the tuition bill, let them know and understand how hard you work to take care of them.

    You should feel no guilt in “depriving” them of an experience that they desire. You are the parent, you know what is right, you know what your budget can afford. Be matter of fact, not confrontational, not defensive, but educate.

    Unless you want to end up with a young adult who has no coping mechanisms when they can’t have what they want. Better they learn it in a loving safe environment, then out in the cold world when they are starting their own families !!

    #981735
    eclipse
    Member

    Little Froggie: No:) Just don’t want to be impersonated if possible! Hope no one confused us, and the similarity was coincidental.

    #981736
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    Eclipse:

    No one can impersonate you!! NO ONE!! You don’t need me to tell you that. (notice how you’re rooted every time you come back after an absence, no one would so much as croak if I’d leave, or worse, come back)

    #981737
    eclipse
    Member

    Thank you, Little Froggie.

    Gosh, I never called anyone a frog before, it feels strange:)

    #981738
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    I’m not a frog, I’m Little Froggie. Don’t be afraid to call me that, it’s better than some other names I’ve been called (here <GASP> and elsewhere)

    #981739
    miritchka
    Member

    from Long Island: hear, hear!!

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