Summer Camp: Getting Teens Ready to Launch

Summer Camps - helping kids grow up

     In her recent New York Times Magazine article, “What is it About 20-Somethings?”  Robin Marantz Henig discusses the trend towards more and more 20-Somethings moving back home, delaying entry into a fully independent life, and turning to their parents for housing and financial support for much longer than many parents anticipated.  Reading this was enough to make Mary T choke on her coffee, as she and Camera Guy have lots of plans for life after our kids become 20-Somethings.  You can be sure those plans don’t  include doing the kids’  laundry and paying their rent.

     It also reminded us why we think teen travel, with family and on their own, is a great way to get those teens ready to launch.  When teens travel with family, they learn a lot about different living conditions and options and develop an appreciation for the world outside their hometown.  We hope, it encourages them to get out of the house and explore as they get older.

Roughing it means having to clean your own cabin

     However,  its the travel that teens do without parents that is likely to have the bigger influence on the pace at which they embrace independence in their early to mid 20s.   We know a couple of weeks of camp every summer isn’t the whole answer, but the increases we see in our kids’ levels of maturity and responsibility when they come back after a couple of weeks away are pretty profound.

     For Hockeyprincess, a series of sleep away hockey and general outdoor camps has made her summer a heaven on earth.  The letters home can barely contain her jubilation over making new friends, learning new skills, testing and exceeding her limits, and operating as an independent person without the  parental units commenting or controlling.  For #1 Son, service trips and a church pilgrimage had a similar effect.  Having a summer job to come back to at home didn’t hurt either in terms of promoting a sense of autonomy.

Saying goodbye at Camp means saying hello to self-reliance

     For mom and dad, these times when teens are at camps or on service trips are a preview of the Empty Nest to come.   On one hand, we are thrilled at how he or she is growing as a person everyday.  The improvements we see in terms of their levels of independence and self-reliance give us hope they will eventually become productive members of society.  On the downside, we can see childhood slipping away and we look back at the baby and toddler pictures with joy and a bit of sorrow that those days are gone for good.

     So, with mixed emotions, we cheer our kids on their journeys to independence as they walk off to join their camp friends.  And, we remind ourselves that in a few years we would much rather have independent, confident young adults who can take care of themselves in the world (and visit us once in a while) than have to deal with overly dependent, tentative kids who are happy to live in our basement.  Mom and dad have lots of plans for after the teens are out on their own — to our mind, summer camp and other types of independent teen travels help them on their way.

     How has your teen’s time away had an impact?  Let us know.