Is it really that relaxed?

Perhaps I have exaggerated somewhat the relaxed nature of camp...but maybe not.  It's true that there are things that need doing, and uncooperative children to cajole and encourage and redirect.  But consider that
a) they are not MY children, who are campers themselves and under someone else's supervision (see? it's already a plus--no arguing about TV or anything else!) and
b) this is camp, not school, and most of the time the kids get to do things that they want to do.  A case in point:

"Leviathan"--the big raft

Yesterday, I helped run a diving activity.  This meant that we took 15 or so kids over to the big raft and they spent an hour and a half "diving."  (Most of us would call it jumping in the water).  I was reminded how much 11-year old boys like to just make noise.  It doesn't really matter why;  in this case it was a spider that they spotted near the ladder, but with no spider there would have been something else.  They screamed and shouted at the top of their lungs for a good hour.  "Henry, look!  Henry!  Henry!"  "Aaaaagh!  It's still there!  Aaaaaaagh!" "Oh no!  It's gone!  Is it in the water? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

In any other setting, I would just about have lost my mind.  But it's CAMP.  They're SUPPOSED to be doing this stuff--that is, acting like young boys who are dealing with their world in a way that is natural to young boys.  Boys are loud, and active, and at school they don't really get to be what they are.  So while I had some supervisory responsibilities, the overall need for management is so much lower than what I'm used to that it doesn't feel much like work.  So while I'm certainly compensated, it still manages to feel like time 'off.'