Summer, and the rantin' is easy

A while back I posted about my annoyance with a day camp that required parents to sign a release acknowledging that the camp did not carry liability insurance.

New summer, new camp, new rant.

This camp requires parents to sign a release of the camp and every affiliated person or entity from all negligence claims. (In oversimplified terms, negligence means you made a mistake that caused someone else to get hurt.)

First, I want to acknowledge that this particular camp is priced and has additional financial aid to allow participation by kids from families of all income levels. It is possible the release lowers the price of its liability insurance, or that the camp administration believes (wrongly) that the release eliminates the need for such insurance. I do not in any way intend to minimize the effect of the cost of insurance, and the effect it might have on the camp's ability to serve all populations.

But . . . I am sending my elementary-school aged child to you. As I have written many times before, accidents happen. If an accident happened because you made a mistake -- and I'm not going to list all of the possible mistakes you can make while caring for a bunch of little kids -- and as a result a kid is permanently disabled, unable to work, unable to care for himself -- you have a moral obligation to defray the expenses for care that will follow the kid for the rest of his life. The good news is, you don't have to pay it yourself, you can get insurance. That's what it's there for.

Having adequate insurance is simply the responsible thing to do.

Another rant about why you should have liability insurance

A few months ago I posted about my irritation with the decision of my mechanic to not purchase liability insurance. Same issue with my eight-year old daughter's day camp, only this time it's more like fury.

I learned that the camp does not have insurance months after I signed her up (and, as any of you who are parents will know, long after the time to make decent alternate plans had passed), as I was filling out additional paperwork. Among that paperwork was a release requiring me to forgo any claims my daughter might have if she is injured at the camp, and to acknowledge that the camp does not have insurance.

So, let me get this right: I am paying (a lot) for you to have my daughter in your care for eight hours a day. If you make a mistake that results in my daughter getting hurt--and because I'm superstitious I'm not going to list all the possible mistakes that you could make in the course of taking care of fifty elementary-school aged kids, or all the possible injuries I can imagine--you are going to say, "Oops, so sorry," and walk away.

Let me say this again: Liability insurance is a cost of doing business. No one enjoys paying it. Everyone who has a business in which there is a decent likelihood that someone could be injured as a result of a mistake the business makes needs to have it.