Do you let your kids sign themselves out of Camp Carnival?

[AQW]

When my son was 10yo, we granted sign-in/out privileges but told him he could ONLY use them for the scavenger hunts. He complied, so on the last sea day we told him when he signed out of camp he could go get pizza at the Lido buffet before returning to the room.

 

The next cruise he almost 11yo, so we gave him sign-in/out privileges with the understanding that he could be one of three places: camp, our cabin, or the Lido buffet just long enough to get food. Never a problem.

 

He's exactly the opposite of some others mentioned here... he just turned 12yo and he is *devastated* that he has aged out of Camp Carnival. He absolutely loves it there. He's an early-to-bed, early-to-rise guy so the late-night activities with Circle C are of no interest to him. (Direct quote from last cruise when we scoped out the Circle C activities list: "Dodgeball at midnight? Who plays dodgeball at MIDNIGHT? When do these people sleep??") :p

[wb3690]

on our last cruise my 9 year old was allowed to sign himself out for camp carnival events...and the rest of the time we told him to stay put until we came back to get him. Also we were able to tell the counselors and they'd make a note by his name not to let him leave if we weren't there and he wasn't allowed (this was on the dream Jan. 2013). we cruise on Sunday. I think we'll let him check himself out, but tell him where we are. We have discussed no other rooms, no swimming etc. we'll figure it out.

[GrandmaHofmann]

NO. I taught High School for many years and had the constant opportunity to hear kids talk about lying to their parents and going where they should not. I even had one student sneak out of his house at night, break his arm, and not tell his parents. I saw him holding the arm to his chest the next day, noticed the hand was discolored and reported it. Not a word of thanks from his parents, I might point out. If you give your 11- year- old or, worse, thirteen- year- old the run of the ship, don't expect he won't be tempted into behaviors you would not approve of by others his age or older. Even at the ages of 15 and 17 when we more or less had to let our sons go on their own as it becomes ridiculous not to, we found out that when they hung out with the son of the head of security on the ship, all the waiters would give the trio liquor. Stickers on their card said they were underage, but that was ignored, and all three boys were drunk on the deck. Sooooooooooooooooooo. We now take our grandsons, ages 8 and 11 on cruises every year. And I have checked NOOOO on whether or not the older boy can sign himself out and NOOO for allowing them to swim under Carnival supervision. There are thousands of people on a ship. Odds are some are pervs as well.

[GrandmaHofmann]

And please don't tell me your children never lie or never do a thing that you wouldn't want them to do. I can't tell you how many times I heard parents say that and I knew better out of the mouths of their children. My sons were A students, in gifted classes, never got in trouble in school, never broke curfew, and they still did that!

[fsupharm77]

Just back from the pride and we had no problem letting our 11 year old daughter check in and out. We actually looked at activities and asked for her to move up to circle c which was granted. We left a message board in room and let her know where we were and if her plans changed to let us know where she was. It was a real taste of independence for her.

 

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[Saltz]

I always trusted my kids.........................just not the other 2500 strangers on a ship.

 

 

 

 

Amen.

 

 

 

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[wb3690]

okay my last comments were based on our first cruise. this second cruise we decided to let my son check out of camp carnival by himself. He wasnt allowed to move up. the cruise was PACKED. He was a little bored in camp and found a good group of kids to run around with. (one was a friend from home). He was great about doing what he said he was (playing mini golf, ping pong, slides etc) and would always come back. At night however we asked them to keep him there until we came back. I didn't want him wandering around at night. it worked for us.

[Davey Wavey]

So a little story...

 

My daughter was 12. She is a leader...so well behaved, trustworthy and mature. Basically a model little person. We allowed her to checkout herself but if doing anything besides the main activity, she had to go to the room and write her destination on the post-its. So, she found a set of nice 11-14 year old friends and just hung out eating pizza and stuff and doing iPad kinda stuff. We saw her several times in passing with her little group.

 

Around the third day, they acquired a shadow...a very "cool" older boy (I thought he was 16 or 17) who started hanging out with the girls. I asked my daughter who he was and she said he was "dating" one of the older girls. So a week after the cruise when we routinely check her phone, we noticed a new guy contact she spent lots of time with. It was "just a friend" from the cruise...yep that guy. He was doing alot to steer the conversation into very inappropriate stuff. Lots of internet searches later we discovered from his facebook page that he was 22 yr old now trying to talk to my 12 yr old daughter. Thankfully they don't like to actually talk on the phone these days, so we had a full record of their texts.

 

We gave all this information to our local child trafficking/exploitation task force and the NEXT DAY his facebook profile disappeared, his phone was disconnected, and we heard no more from him. So, trust your child all you want but remember they are still a child. Manipulative adults can trick a smart adult, so where does that leave even your mature child? And as much as we all want to give more responsibility and trust, think about the consequences if it doesn't go as planned. Just be careful...

Edited April 15, 2014 by Davey Wavey