Parenting is hard these days. You want your kid to face uncomfortable environments, so they grow, but you don’t want them to be uncomfortable. You want them to gain confidence, but you don’t want to neglect them. We all know there isn’t a guidebook to parenting. But we are here to help: when it comes to creating a supportive environment that gets kids out of their comfort zone and into a place where they can grow and face structured adversity, we have a recommendation. Here’s why Overnight Camps are the ultimate lessons for independence for kids.
What Makes Overnight Camps a Powerful Tool for Building Independence
When kids arrive at overnight camp, whether it be an overnight sports camp, a traditional sleepaway camp, or a specialty camp (like band, theater, or religious camp), they are oftentimes arriving without any friends or family. They’re heads are raised: looking for friends, common connections, or their new roommate. They aren’t looking down at their phone or hiding behind what’s comfortable. The intrinsic motivation of finding a buddy is ignited – they can’t rely on mom or dad to make friends for them. This first “uncomfortable” moment is powerful because they will achieve the goal.
Don’t worry Mom and Dad, your kids will make friends. There are people around to make sure they are supported in this first challenge: counselors or coaches won’t let them sit alone at lunch. And after they achieve this first goal (whether the goal is subconscious or conscious at that time), they have a foundation in the newfound confidence to take on new challenges throughout the week.
And new challenges will certainly arise! Each challenge is a repetition in independence. Being responsible for setting your own alarm to make sure you get up with enough time to get ready before the breakfast bell. Picking up your clothes and making your bed so your cabin wins the “Golden Broom” award. Setting out your bathing suit to dry so you don’t have to put on a wet bathing suit for tomorrow’s lake time.
The stakes are low: if your kids have to wear wet bathing suits for swimming tomorrow, they will be okay. But it’s on them: they will learn the lesson themselves and opt to start thinking ahead so they are on time, ready, and prepared for the fun that’s in store. And those reps of preparedness… all reps for independence that come home with them long after camp is over.
How Overnight Camps Boost Confidence and Decision-Making Skills
Now, these repetitions of independence and ‘uncomfortable situations’ aren’t just to make your child’s life tough at summer camp. Each time a kid gets past the adversity, their confidence grows and they are ready to take on more. Their developing brain creates a new pathway: the feeling of butterflies and nervousness doesn’t always mean back away or retreat from the challenge.
The brain banks the feeling of nervousness and butterflies, remembering that you can get through challenges like this (we have before at summer camp!), and pushes you forward with confidence next time that feeling creeps in. Whether your child is sitting down to take a test they are nervous about, going in for their first job interview, or getting dropped off at college freshman year… we’ve been here before: we’ve felt nervous, we were okay then, and we are okay now.
Overnight Camps also give a lot of decision-making power to kids who are oftentimes in structured activities (school, organized sports teams, organized hobbies) throughout most of their life. Parents want the best for their kids, so they naturally put their kids in the activities they think will be best for them. The only thing is, that doesn’t allow too much time for kids to make their own decisions about how they want to spend their time. And when screens stay at home, kids have a lot of decisions to make about this newfound free time!
Many Overnight Camps allow kids to choose activities throughout the day, which is the biggest example of decision-making freedom at camp. But there are also smaller examples that all add up to a big-time impact on confidence building: where to sit at breakfast? Which new friends are the best for me? How to spend my canteen money?
… All just a few examples of the decisions each kid gets to make throughout their day at summer camp.
Building Social Confidence
Friendships, Teamwork, and Leadership Opportunities
One of the most fun aspects of Overnight Summer Camps is the competition and games throughout the week. Whether it’s cabin challenges like having the cleanest cabin to get first shower privilege, or an old-fashioned game of capture the flag, a huge element of overnight camp is games and contests. In each game, there’s an element of working together. And the best part, a lot of times you must work together with a group of kids you just met.
It’s in these scenarios that we see a lot of leaders come to the top. And sometimes these leaders aren’t the kids who are leading at home in the classroom or on the sports field. As a Camp Director, I have parents dumbfounded when I tell them that their kid was the captain of the game because they are such a strong and communicative leader. The parent might say something like, “That’s amazing, he is always so quiet at school! It’s hard to get him to even participate”. Why is it that some kids, a good majority of kids actually, blossom at overnight camp into their full selves, but claim up at home?
It’s because they get to reinvent themselves at camp: they aren’t worried about impressing the cool kids by being “too cool” for the activity (at camp, the “cool kids” are the counselors, and the counselors are fully participating in the games and including everyone), they aren’t worried about the bully that lurks ready to make fun of them if they mess up a little (that bully doesn’t come to camp!), and they aren’t worried about school pressures or homework.
All of that is on pause for the week so kids can be kids. And it’s truly amazing to see a kid shine with their authentic goofy personality. It’s freeing for them, because they look around and see they are accepted and respected… making it a little easier to shine a bit brighter when they get home to their regular life.
Take the Leap
Cash in on the benefits of overnight summer camps
So here we are, summer is coming up before we know it, and overnight camps are opening registration. Our invitation for you mom and dad: sign your kids up. They will be nervous, and so will you. You will worry that they will make friends and that they will remember to hang their bathing suits up to dry. And they will. Or they will learn how to along the way. And they will be okay. And the best part: they will have the confidence to take on more responsibility, step out of their comfort zone, and make good decisions in the future because they now know how. Looking for an overnight summer camp that also has sports tracks for athletes? That puts an emphasis on the confidence-building practices we mentioned in this article? Check out Signature Sports Camps. Signature blends together sports training with traditional sleepaway camp across the USA, offering sports tracks in lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, and flag football.
