The Perks, Privileges, and Pitfalls of Hiring and Managing Staff Parents

Parents of current campers are valuable assets in many camp programs. However, they also come with challenges, including feelings of entitlement, supervising one’s peers, discretion, being an ambassador of your brand inside and outside of camp, and the inability to separate their job as a staff member from their role as a parent when their children are “at work” with them. This session will help the people who hire, train, and manage staff parents understand the importance of setting clear expectations from the start and recognize the value in having targeted training for staff parents during orientation. This session will focus on positive ways supervisors can convey to staff parents that they were hired to do a job, and that while at camp, their parental role comes second. When/if staff parents overstep that boundary, their behaviors not only reflect poorly on the job that they do, but can negatively impact their own children’s camp experience. Don’t let it!