A new national poll has found that safety is not a top priority for parents when it comes to choosing a summer camp for their children. Summer is upon us, and this means that parents are enrolling their children in programs and activities that they can learn and develop in. Summer camps continue to be popular choices, and they are really helpful for parents who have to work and need somewhere to send their children.
Camps can be essential for the health, growth and development of children, and they teach them some important, vital skills.
This would mean that parents choose their children’s camps very carefully, but some are curious as to how parents make those decisions.
According to Medical Xpress, a national poll has shown that safety is not always the top priority when parents are choosing a camp for their children.
This poll was done by the University of Michigan, and it can be read in full here. In light of the current pandemic, only 1 in 10 parents say that COVID-19 masking and vaccination are essential to their decision on summer camps. However, this may have left many wondering what a priority would be for parents.
The poll found that logistics was what was most important for parents. It is important to note that parents do think safety is important when it comes to camp counselor supervision and first aid training. They stated they do not rate that as high when it comes to making their final decision. This may be why only half of parents said that they feel confident that they are able to tell if a summer camp is safe for their child.
Workers on this survey stated that this could be seen as concerning, considering children who attend camps spend the majority of their days there and sometimes overnight.
The poll involved more than 1,000 patients who had at least one child between the ages of 6 to 12 years old, and half of the parents said that they are considering an overnight or day camp for their child this summer.
They stated that location, hours and cost were the highest priorities for a parent when it came to choosing which camp, they should send their children to.
For 2 in 5 parents, the types of activities are what they based their decision on, and less than a third said that it was important to them that the camp limited access to technology and social media.
Sources: Medical Xpress, Mott Poll