Sep. 5th, 2007

Oh, gag me

Sep. 5th, 2007 05:05 pm
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So I'm looking at the website for my health club, trying to make sense of their schedule of kid classes and not finding what I'm looking for, and I click through to look at their summer camps. (Yes, I realize it's a bit late in the year to be registering my kid for summer camp, but this website is confusing enough I wasn't convinced I wouldn't find what I was looking for in that section.)

One of there summer camp sessions is called "Boys Will be Boys." The description:

Boys Will Be Boys / Ages 6-12
Participants will enjoy a week of camp with other boys their age. We will play active sporting games and competitions. Participants will receive a daily snack and a T-shirt; however they need to bring a sack lunch with beverage each day.


I am momentarily taken aback that I don't see a "Girls Will Be Girls" session, and then realize (duh) it's all in alphabetical order, and scroll down. Here's what I find:

Girls Just Want to Have Fun Camp / Ages 6-12
Experience the meaning of girl power! Have fun all week long in activities that may include scrapbooking, swimming, self-defense, nail and hair styling and rock climbing. Each day will also cover a special topic like healthy eating or positive role models. Camp may feature special guests or a field trip. Participants will receive a daily snack and a T-shirt; however they need to bring a sack lunch with beverage each day.


Surely I'm not the only one out there who has a problem with boys getting "active sporting games" and girls getting "nail and hair styling" and "scrapbooking"? Yes, it does appear that the girls get active stuff as well (self-defense, rock climbing) but WTF? My kid came home from summer camp (Y camp, not LifeTime Fitness camp) so filthy I could barely see her freckles. As she damn well should. She's six years old; the last message she needs to get from a camp counselor is that she should be worrying about her nails.

This pretty much sums up my frustration with the Girl Scouts, for that matter. Boy Scouts get hiking and camping and backpacking merit badges. Girl Scouts do have camping badges -- but they also have merit badges for skin care and makeup application, and the sad fact is that it's a lot more work for the adult leadership to take them hiking and camping. (And from what I can tell, this has only gotten worse; parent volunteers are now supposed to go to mandatory training sessions before they can go along on camping trips. There's a logic to this, and as a parent I appreciate that they don't want to let Creepy McCreeperson tag along on my daughter's hypothetical camping trips, but dang, it's going to make it hard to round up enough parents to actually go camping ever.)

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