12 Responses for "Why don’t they have summer camp for kids in Australia?"

1. Katie L November 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pm 1

   hey

   i live in australia and i wish we did have some kind of summer camp just as an option

   it sounds like so much fun!!!

2. Billybean November 29th, 2008 at 3:37 am 2

   I take it that you are American
   Summer camp is a peculiarly American phenomenon. To us people in other parts of the world it just seems like an excuse for parents to get shut of their children for a few weeks during the summer (school) holidays so that they can continue with their own selfish lives without the interruption of spending time with their children.
   i.e. American way of life = summer camp for children

3. Kella G December 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pm 3

   Ah – more criticism from the blissfully ignorant afar.

   Child abuse might also be construed as wanting to palm your kids off on someone else every summer LOL

   There are camp opportunities available for kids in Australia YMCA operate some very good ones. Most families here actually enjoy being together.

   **We ae by no means humorless – but, we do get a tad testy when folks from other countries suggest that they do things so much better. Unfortunately, we probably encounter more of that from Americans than from anyone else.

   Conveying “subtle” humor on the net is an art – all we see is words on a screen. We can’t read minds, or intention unless you phrase it to clearly indicate your meaning.

4. West Aussie Chick December 3rd, 2008 at 5:36 am 4

   Probably because summer is the Christmas season and we actually want to spend time with our kids! There are plenty of activities to do without sending them away. And due to the fact that it IS Christmas..we often have a week or so off ourselves to enjoy the holidays with our kids.

   I agree with a couple of the other people that answered this question regarding the child abuse issue here. I think it is terrible to send your kids away for so long as you do in America. Why have kids if you want to palm them off for 6 weeks of the year?

5. lazyserpent December 6th, 2008 at 3:23 am 5

   We don’t have summer camps but I use to go on those Crusader camps. They where only for a week on so and they pretty fun. I really enjoyed the performing arts one. Ther isn’t really a culture of sending children of to camps here in Australia like there is in America. I guess she thought it seemed like fun for the kids and a good idea.

6. Elizabeth December 9th, 2008 at 3:53 am 6

   I suppose you do realise Christmas/New Year is right in the middle of our childrens 6 or 7 week Summer holidays.

   Many, many families travel to relatives for a Christmas holiday break (vacation) or to beach resorts etc.

   We tend to spend time together as a family especially at Christmas and not pack our kids off to strangers for an extended period of time.

   On the subject of child abuse you obviously have no concept of the term if you think “no summer camp” is it’s definition.
   Handing your children off to strangers who have total and complete control over them, day and night, could also be defined as child abuse.

7. neon December 9th, 2008 at 9:48 am 7

   We don’t have an absurd number of summer camps for children because parents here prefer to spend their holidays with their kids rather than dump them in the care of a complete stranger for a month or so.

8. waltzsingmatilda2 December 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm 8

   Because we send our children to school and at Christmas time the Dads and Mums take there children away for holidays instead of palming them off to camps with strangers like they do in other foreign country’s,we are family.

9. Frances M December 14th, 2008 at 8:06 pm 9

   Maybe they love their kids and do not want to get rid of them in the warm weather ?

10. Mickmalimus December 16th, 2008 at 1:14 am 10

    Well I got It! Lol. Don’t dump on American parents so much guys, you can see they love their kids by how fat the little buggers are. JUST JOKES =P

    Yeah, thing is our summer holidays do have christmas and newyears in the middle of it so I guess it’s kind of a family time.

    Traditionally Aussie kids hang out at the shops, scabbing cigarettes and trying to look cool during summer holidays while parents are still at work anyway.

11. Ken E December 17th, 2008 at 7:14 am 11

    Though I have never been to the US I have got the impression that a lot of US summer camps are by the shores of a lake. There are virtually no lakes in Australia worthy of the name. There are a few old volcanoes filled with water, Crater Lake in Sth Australia, Lakes Eacham and Barrine in northern Queensland. All other lakes of any size are either dry and filled with salt or they are town or city dams and as water supplies, camps on their shores are discouraged for hygienic reasons.

    One town I lived in, not even the Scouts had a camp in the countryside near the town for more than overnight because of lack of water.

    As you have probably learned, Christmas falls in the middle of the Australian summer school holidays, which are 6 to 8 weeks long depending on the state and the school. This leaves little time for long summer camps. All that said, I went to a few camps as a kid, they were usually for a week or maybe two and they were all at some seaside location.

    Some organisations ran such camps in January for children from remote inland districts but I don’t know whether they still do. Probably.

    Hello muddah
    Hello faddah
    Here I am at
    Camp Granada
    Camp is very
    Entertaining
    And they say we’ll have some fun
    When it stops raining.

12. But Why?? December 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pm 12

    Are you a Dik Hed??

    Do they teach anything in America???
    Summer camps are for up-start pooftas.