Summer Camp Friendships: Connections That Can Last A Lifetime

Summer camp friendships are just one of the developmental boosts that can give the children who are lucky enough to go a leg up on peers who opt to spend the long school break at home. Kids Health, a website devoted to helping parents navigate milestones in childhood development, referred to sleep away camp as an opportunity for kids to develop a greater sense of independence.

Earlier this year, Madeleine Burry of New York Metro Parents observed that the friendships kids form at camp develop under very different circumstances than the connections that happen during school and extracurricular activities.

Why Are The Bonds Associated With Summer Camp Friendships So Strong?

Summer camp friendships develop in an environment where the daily routine and the set hierarchies of day-to-day life at home is absent. During this period of self discovery, constant proximity and shared experience usually proves to be an intense bonding experience for young campers.

Burry suggests that one of the biggest changes in the rhythm of life at camp as opposed to home is the unwiring that happens. Some camps forbid devices altogether, while others allow phones with the knowledge that reception is terrible and Wi-Fi is nonexistent. Without the constant distraction and stress of a continual stream of information from social media, kids find themselves having to deal with versions of themselves and their peers that are not curated. Those connections feel more real.

Newfound independence and no screens to hide behind give many young people a chance to move beyond labels, personas, and the various profiles that serve as shorthand versions of themselves. They are reborn to themselves and the assemblages of cabin mates, trail buddies, and table partners begin to feel like a discovery of siblings of choice.

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Metro Parent Daily’s Amy Kuras concurs that summer camp can be a great place for kids to learn to create friendships outside of the boundaries set by institutions that rule their lives for the rest of the year.

Camp can be the place where less-socially adept children develop the skills needed to navigate the sometimes treacherous, twisting routes that thread through tween and teen social life. Kuras cites Douglas Grimm, former camping coordinator for the Detroit area YMCA.

“Camp lets kids break out of those stereotypes and discover new things about themselves. Everyone begins label-free. Kids become friends with people they might never speak to in their normal environments – and discover new sides of themselves they might not have considered.

“That’s always been true at camp. Every kid gets a fresh start because they all have labels, but at camp they just don’t have those – and we work at not developing those.”

…And Back Home Again

The American Camp Association conducted a survey of 5,000 families after their child’s camp experience. An overwhelming majority, approximately 90 percent, stated that their time in camp gave them the opportunity to get to know people from different backgrounds, many of whom they would have never met in their day-to-day life at home, school, or as a part of their religious communities. Even more encouraging was the 92 percent of respondents who said the experience left them feeling better about themselves afterwards.

While it was disclosed by some children that they experienced a blue period for a few days after returning home. The feeling of separation was replaced by something even better. As noted by Grimm, children who overcome their struggles with forming friendships often find what works for them and carry those skills back to school.

Summer camp is indeed more that crafts, campfires, and cabin pranks. Those summer camp friendships can help develop social skills and in the best of circumstances, can last a lifetime.

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