I work as a counselor at a day camp at a local living history museum. My mom also works at the museum; she gives tours. (That’s not really pertinent but I think it’s interesting information…I dunno, maybe it’s not.) Anyway, there is one other counselor: a girl my age, whose mom also works at the museum. We get along fairly well. Again, not really pertinent, but you know <shrug> just giving some general background info. We’re in charge of planning, organizing, and running historically-themed camps for three different age groups: we have Victorian Life, School Life (the time period was unspecified but we’re planning all the activities as if it were around 1860), and Pioneer Life. The age groups are 5- and 6-year-olds; 7- and 8-year-olds, and 9- through 11-year-olds. A total of nine weeks of camp.
So here’s where we start with the ranting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the lameness.
Starting off with the age groups: my boss doesn’t stick to those. In the 5- and 6-year-olds camp, we had an 8-year-old. In this week’s 7- and 8-year-old camp, we have a 5-year-old and a 9-year old. One or two years may not make a lot of difference for adults, but for kids it makes a world of difference, not only in skill level for crafts, but also maturity level, attention span, and other things of that nature. A 9-year-old isn’t going to be occupied by the same simple things a 5-year-old is; a 5-year-old isn’t going to be able to understand the directions for a more complicated craft or game that a 9-year-old would enjoy. You just can’t stick kids in a camp willy nilly! (I always wanted to use that phrase, willy nilly.)
My boss is very adamant about making sure that we stick to the brochure. For instance, under the description for the School Life camp, she wrote that we would be doing “number tricks.” We absolutely have to cover this, because she worries that parents will be upset that their kids were promised number tricks, but no number tricks were actually taught. Fine, whatever. But how do you do number tricks with five-year-olds? Most five-year-olds haven’t even been to kindergarten yet; they can’t add and subtract double-digit numbers.
Speaking of the brochure, my boss doesn’t practice what she preaches. She wrote in the brochure that class sizes are capped at 25, and the counselor-to-camper ratio is roughly 1:12. However, we have class sizes of 30, and my boss doesn’t show any signs of limiting registration. We don’t get a third person to help out when we have over 25 kids, which really sucks because we’re already spread too thin. All of the kids demand our attention all of the time. It’s very hard to keep track of 30 kids when they’re running around and then 4 have to go to the bathroom and this one fell down and got a scrape, and this other one hit someone in the head, and another one wants to tell you about her t-ball game last night…
Don’t get me wrong, 99% of the kids are awesome. I love 99% of the kids. It’s the 1% who consistently “accidentally” push or hit. Or the 1% who always have to be first in line for everthing. Or stuff like that. But I do see a day-to-day improvement in that 1%, which makes everything totally worth it. Plus they don’t hate me, which is always a bonus. 
Now for the parents. Ohhh, the parents.
On Monday, one lady asked me if bug spray was really necessary for her child. I said, “The mosquitos were pretty bad last week. I would really suggest spraying some on before you drop her off, or else packing some in her lunch.” (We’re not allowed to apply bug spray or sunscreen to the children, to avoid any accusations of child molestation. Can’t be too careful these days, I suppose…) The mother said, “Well, I don’t think it’s really necessary, especially because it’s going to rain.” Now, in my experience, the mosquitos are worse when it’s really humid. They go away when it rains, of course, but we’re not going to be standing around outside in the rain, so that’s a moot point. Anyway, this mother decided that her child wouldn’t need bugspray. That’s fine, that’s not my call to make. But this morning she came back and complained to the other counselor that her daughter had a mosquito bite on her head. Horror of horrors! We mustn’t let our dear Princess Petunia get any bug bites, right? Perhaps if your child had taken some precautions, say, by wearing bugspray or something, she wouldn’t have that problem. I don’t know what my co-worker said to her, but I do know that she was probably more diplomatic than I might have been.
We also have two kids this week whose parents don’t understand that drop-off is at 9:15. One girl comes in at 10, and the other comes in at 10:45. We try to catch their parents in the morning, to ask if this is going to be consistent, but the parents run off before we ever see them. In the afternoon, these girls carpool with other people, so we don’t see their parents then. We meant to call today, but we didn’t, which is our own fault. :smack: It’s really irritating, though, because then those children miss out on some of the crafts, and my co-worker and I have to drop everything we’re doing to go pick those kids up from the drop-off point. If it happens again tomorrow, you can be sure that I will leave phone messages right as those girls arrive.
The last gripe. I’m amazed if there’s anyone still reading this far. 
I’m a temporary hire–only for the summer. I can’t exceed 40 hours per week. Camp starts at 9:15 and ends at 3:30. My co-worker and I need to arrive at 8 every morning to set up. That only gives us until 4, since we work 5 days each week. After the children leave in the afternoon, we need to clean up (the place can be a real disaster area…not the kids’ fault though, ours) and do any shopping for perishable food items or craft items that we might have run out of. This takes more than 30 minutes. I talked to my boss, and I can’t even volunteer any hours over 40 without pay–I would get in trouble with the city or something. Not too clear exactly what that means, but I’ve heard threats. I already don’t eat lunch during the day because I’m too busy doing other set-up stuff. This is getting insane. We either need to be allowed more than 40 hours each week, or else we need a third person. I genuinely want to make camp fun for the kids, and I want to satisfy the parents by doing fun crafts and recipes and games with their kids, but I just don’t have time for it.
Those are my incredibly whiny rants about camp. This whole experience has helped me realize what life must be like for elementary school teachers, and I’ve gained a whole new respect for them. I plan on writing a letter to my boss at the end of the summer, detailing all of the things that I believe she has control over. I can’t trust her to change them, though. My mom ran this camp several years ago, and she complained to the boss about many of the same things I’m outlining here. Things haven’t changed one whit.
