Transcript of our interview with Melissa, Kidnetix: Parent Interview with Melissa Essue

How did you know Kinetix was the right fit?

I knew Kinetix was the right fit because I'm very attuned to my kids and their connection. When I usually drop off, my kids can usually give me a really good indication from the counselors, from, you know, how they feel. And right from the first, I would say, 10 minutes—how staff greeted me, how staff greeted my kids, the environment, looking around, you know, at smiles and stuff—I knew it was the right fit for me because of how my kids responded.

What's unique about Kidnetix?

What's unique about Kidnetix is I feel that even though it's a camp and even though there is more than one child, they still offer a unique one-to-one where I always felt like, at the end of the day, the week, I felt seen as a parent and my kids felt seen as individuals. They never felt like, oh, we were a camper and I was lost in the hustle.

If there was ever an issue, there was a lot of one-to-one. The owner, she was always on site, and if there was an issue, she would be there right away to resolve it. So I always felt like I was seen and heard, which was very different from the city camp experience.

Was there any personal growth you saw in your child after Kidnetix?

The personal growth that I saw in my kids, just because of the amount of years that they've been engaged, is really the leadership. It's the maturity.

My kids are immersed within a private school environment, so blending and mixing with public school kids was a bit of a concern for me, but I really was able to see the growth in their emotional intelligence, being able to discern the difference between, you know, following versus being a leader. I really saw that towards the end of each, whether it was the weeks or the programs or the summer camps, a demonstration of leadership and confidence as well. That was another really big thing.

How can a parent support their child to get the most out of this experience?

What I've found as a parent is the way to support your kids is to be present, be present at pickup, be present at drop-off. And when I say present, it's asking questions. How was my kid doing? Who are they connecting with? What are some problems?

I would sit at drop-off sometimes, and some people would just have their hand on the door. And there was no feedback. There's no looking into stuff. I am a very different parent that way, so I feel that that's the best way to answer that question. But I realize as an individual, everyone has different parenting styles.

But if you do want to get the best out of this camp, it is to ask a lot of questions, because anything that I put on the staff or Stacy's to-do list, she very much showed up and she was like, hey, we worked on this, or we worked on that, or are you seeing any changes? And I was like, absolutely, like right away. So she would build into the day or the week some goals and stuff, which I thought was really great.

What would you tell other parents about the overall value of sending kids here?

The overall value of Kidnetix is just that it is a camp that is meant to be a little bit more. It is a camp that is meant to be a learning, skill-based, and skill-building camp. It is not a free-for-all like a majority of the camps that you see where it's just you go and it's just like unstructured play.

It is structured. It teaches accountability. It teaches problem solving. There are so many different pieces to the Kidnetix experience beyond just a place to go for your kids for respite.

What do your children say about their experience at Kinetix?

It's always the request to do another week, another session, the opportunity. Like, now that my kids are older, they're talking about doing like an LIT program. Like, is there an opportunity for me to give back and for me to be a leader, for me to be, you know, one of the camp counselors?

So, which I really love, they've grown and evolved from being attendees to now requesting that they actually want to give back to the camp. So I think that's nice.

Any final thoughts about Kidnetix?

As a non-profit, I truly don't think that Kidnetix gets the recognition that it does. I think the reach—and that will come, of course, with, you know, help with the numbers. I think that there needs to be a Kidnetix in every single city so that kids can all have the opportunity to do this outside of Brampton. So that's my hope for them, is that they're able to grow and spread their wings.

And I've heard through the grapevine that they are partnering with OAP providers. So now there's going to be that neurodivergent piece of having kids on the spectrum come in, you know, with other learning challenges, where it now truly can be an all-inclusive experience, which is another huge gap right now in the camp space.