<p>Our kids went happily to sleep-away camps from fourth grade onward and I never heard such stories as are recounted here.</p>
<p>[Dear</a> Parents - Please Relax, It’s Just Camp - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26camp.html?em&ex=1217217600&en=add411fef8da74b7&ei=5087 ]Dear”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26camp.html?em&ex=1217217600&en=add411fef8da74b7&ei=5087 )</p>
<p>First - Wow! I feel so much better about myself after reading that!</p>
<p>Second - $10,000 for summer camp for 9 year olds. I’m poorer than I even realized!</p>
<p>Okay, I haven’t read the article yet, but I’m cracking up at the photo! I didn’t know men that old still “popped” their collars… oh, boy. And that look he’s giving!</p>
<p>Yikes, 10K for camp! </p>
<p>I just looked up the camp I went to in the early 70’s, it’s $6400, </p>
<p>The camp my son went to for 11 years before this summer has a sliding scale and I never paid more than $2500 for 8 weeks. There was no visiting day because each session was 4 weeks long and the campers came home btw sessions. Parents and campers had to communicate by writing! No cell phones allowed. I cherish each of the few cards I did get from my son each summer.</p>
<p>And we thought the current kids were hothouse flowers. It just gets worse. What they need is schools and camps to tell the parents to just **** off.</p>
<p>We sent our kids to a camp for 3 weeks as 4th graders. Parents were instructed not to visit and not to call for at least the first week; and campers were similarly told not call their parents for the first week. Thereafter, they could call or visit only on the weekend.
I agree that the camps should develop some spine and tell parents that if they or their offspring cannot adhere to the code, they should leave.</p>
<p>Wow, just wow! I am stunned! Well, now I know that I never was a helicopter parent. Oh, and my kids never went to a camp that cost over 1200 per month (sleepaway camps). Oh, and I never called the camps once. No news is good news. I did get perhaps 2 calls about minor stuff (ie: bee sting) from the camp’s nurse. They dealt with it and my kids were fine. My younger son took horseback riding lessons and he did not always get the horse that he wanted to ride, but “so what”. Why does everything need to be perceived as “perfect”? I love the widespread secret stash of 2 mobile phones, so mommy and daddy are just a dial away! Give me a break! BTW, my kids knew that if they ever wanted to call home, they were allowed to ask to make a call from the camp’s office phone, but it just was not necessary.</p>
<p>Lord love a duck!!!</p>
<p>Oh, lawd, does this ever make parents of our generation look overly involved. I can’t believe that parents who send their kids to “no cell phone” camps encourage their kids to lie by giving the kids a second cell phone to keep secret.
I can’t help wondering whether the kids of parents like this will practice “benign neglect” with their own kids when they have them. Back when I went to camp (a very rustic, primitive Girl Scout camp) my parents said “goodbye” when I left on the bus and I didn’t see them (or even really think about them!) until they picked me up at the bus stop a few weeks later.</p>
<p>It really makes me long for the days of
“hello mudder, hello fadder, here I am at camp…”</p>
<p>hahah yes marite I too remember!</p>
<p>But we didnt send out kids to “camp” We went camping as a family, sometimes kicking and screaming (my H that is). We had the most incredible experiences…memories and bonding and growing up.</p>
<p>Oh lord I dreaded the phone call that started “Ms. <strong><em>, this is Nurse </em></strong>_ from camp.” Bruised this, banged that, they had to call before taking kid to hospital for xrays or giving them prescription medicine.</p>
<p>Favor postcard “Sorry I haven’t written, got caught up in Olympics (big camp wide even that lasted for days). we had grilled cheese, send candy”</p>
<p>sueinphilly, I will admit that when I got those calls from the nurse I went into alarm mode, until I heard, "I have_____here, and he is okay now, but… Then I calmed down.</p>
<p>I remember marching to the laundromat after camp every year because their clothes were so filthy that I did not want to clean them at home. I could run 3 machines at a time at the laundromat and get the laundry done faster anyway. I looked at those really dirty clothes, and I knew that they had a great time.</p>
<p>Yes, the nurse would always try to get the “he’s okay” out before the panic mode got too bad!</p>
<p>Oh gawd the laundry! And the sneakers that came home were considered a bio hazard and had to be removed and discarded at the door. </p>
<p>My son called me in a panic last year. He was a counselor and doing his own laundry. He had a pen run thru the dryer cycle and wanted to know how to get the ink out. I told him to just give last rites to the clothes and consider them a loss.</p>
<p>In the last week of camp, my S had a contest with other floormates as to who could go without taking a shower longest. I asked someone who lived in the same city and had a kid attending the same camp, please could she drive my kid back? No problem, she answered. When she delivered S back to our home, I opened the door and the most awful stench wafted out. The poor woman had had to endure it for several hours!</p>
<p>the first year (age 7), I sent 3 bars of soap, just like the packing list said. 2 came back unopened, I could still read the word “dial” on the third. I didn’t want to know the answer to the question “what did you use to wash yourself”…</p>
<p>We started sending our only child to camp the summer after 3rd grade. He could go for 2 weeks and then, after 4th grade, another 2 weeks. The summer after 5th grade, month long sessions began. No, it was not an uber-expensive camp; it was located approx 2 hours from our home! However, there was absolutely NO contact allowed. The only means of communication was by means of letter-writing. No phone calls allowed as well as no parent visitation, and of course, back then, cell phones just weren’t around. He loved every minute of it, saying it was like one big spend the night party. He was introduced to a variety of activities including riflery, bow and arrow, first aid, and the usual sporting activities including horseback riding, boating, etc. He was also camping with kids from all over the country as well. He was required to take a swim test and was placed at whatever level he tested to hone up on those skills. Was it difficult for us as parents? You bet, after all, he was our only child. The first summer of two weeks was absolute misery–but we survived and reading some of his letters/postcards (I still have them!) are absolutely priceless. He was as happy as a clam. In subsequent years, I think we looked forward to the “vacation” time away. Of course we missed him, but it gave spouse and I time to ourselves to enjoy parent dinners, etc. As I look back now, I involved him in camp because he was an only child and I wanted him to have the experiences of living with a group of people and accepting responsibility for taking care of himself. I tell everyone now that I believe that is why he chose to attend college more than 11 hours away from home in a different part of the country and will soon be returning as a Junior. No, we weren’t helicopter parents; it just wasn’t allowed!</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about this. My daughter went away to a sleep-away camp for three weeks. No cell phones were allowed and she could not call us unless she had permission from camp personnel. On the second day, she fell and gashed her knee very badly. The camp nurse cleaned it but did not contact us. She would not allow my (then) eleven year old daughter to call us. We did not know about the injury until we picked her up to bring her home. We were horrified by the injury and took our daughter to our doctor. He said the camp should have taken her to the emergency room for cleaning and stitches. By the time, he saw her it was too late for stitches. As a result, she has an enormous scar on her knee. To this day, she is shy about wearing shorts, bathing suits or short skirts because of the scar. The following year, she went to another sleep-away camp and you can bet we left her with a cell-phone. We were up front with the camp director about this and we would not allow her to remain without access to the cell-phone. The director was very understanding and agreeable. My daughter did not use the phone and had a great time.</p>
<p>the camp was wrong for not telling you and getting proper treatment. My son’s camp had a full time nurse and we were on a first name basis after 11 years (yes she worked there that long).</p>
<p>Wow, both my S’s went to a rustic mountain camp for one week each summer from 3rd grade through mid. sch. The cost was less than $200 per kid! There were no phone calls, fax machines, internet or cell phone. I think I got one letter out of all the years they went. They loved it.</p>