When I was growing up, kids didn’t have the constant electronic tether to their parents that they do today. It caused the inevitable problems of course – for instance, never knowing where my brother was at dinner time (and having to call everyone in the neighborhood to find out), going to the wrong mall entrance to get picked up and missing our mom, not knowing when she’d get there to pick us up, etc.
Archive for the 'Opinion' Category
A Good Disconnect
Published July 19, 2012 Electronics , Letters to camp , Musings , Opinion , Overnight camp , Parenting 3 CommentsTags: Cell phones, Email, Hollee Actman Becker, Kidsicknes, Letters to camp, Mashable, Musings, Overnight camp, Parenting, Slate, sleepaway camp, Suburb Babble, Summer camp, Time
7 Point Font & Other Acts of Desperation
Published August 5, 2010 Funny , Letter ideas , Opinion 4 CommentsTags: Advice, Camp letter ideas, Camper, Funny, Letter-writing advice, Letters to camp, Links to other sites, Overnight camp, Parenting, What not to write, What to write
Shrtr ltrs 2 cmp
By now, you’re a seasoned letter-writer. Your letters to camp are masterful. Funny. No, hysterical. Engaging. Illuminating. Pieces of fine art. World-class prose. On par with those of John and Abigail Adams. But if your letters are too long, how can you shorten them?
@camp.com
Published July 6, 2009 Letters to camp , Links to other sites , Opinion 1 CommentTags: Disconnecting from campers, Importance of letters, Letters to camp, Links to other sites, Technology
Ah, letters to camp… Letter-writing is all about communication. And since I was a camper sometime way before 1990, things have changed… and how!
My loving parents used to pack us off to camp on a bus and that was the last they saw of us until visiting day over three weeks later. That’s just the way they did things back before 1990. Now parents can instantly send email, sometimes even receive email from campers, send and receive faxes (policies vary of course), see pictures of their campers, read blog posts, and even see videos! Check out Julie Kraut’s guest opinion in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more thoughts.
Parents become experts at picking up little hints about their kids’ experience from posted phots and blog posts… who is she standing next to? Why isn’t he smiling? Why is the other kid in so many pictures when my kid is invisible? Problem is, we’re not really experts at deciphering this, and believe it or not, there really is no way to know what your child is experiencing. Heck, it can be hard enough to tell when your kid is standing right in front of you, let alone in a picture from camp (OK, I’m exaggerating a bit but you get the point).
This became even more clear for me recently when I visited a great camp that’s similar to my own kids’ camp. As I sat at dinner watching other kids happily sing songs, dance and engage in many special camp traditions, I realized just how few of the songs, dances and traditions I actually knew from my own kids’ camp. And because I didn’t go there as a camper, I realized that I will never be able to fully understand their camp experience as they do. But I can see that it’s OK for my kids to have their own special and unique experiences. Those experiences are just a part kids’ growth into independent individuals. When they choose to share, they will. And when they don’t, I’ll have to trust the highly capable people that run their camp.
Remember, camp is really all about your camper’s experience, not yours. The bottom line: for your child, the most important form of communication is the letter, email or fax that you send them.
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