My husband and I cannot agree on summer camp for our 10-year-old son. My husband was shipped off to sleepaway camp the entire summer; I attended day camp. Your thoughts?
—Too Young to Camp
Patty: You are talking to someone who never attended camp—not day camp, not sleepaway camp. With the size of my family, my home always felt like camp. I am sure my parents did not see a reason to pay money for me to go somewhere to share a room and bathroom with a bunch of other people since I was already doing that. My summers consisted of playing outside, riding bikes and watching General Hospital. And I turned out just fine. Well, except for my obsession for Luke Spencer. Compromise: send your 10-year-old off for a two- or three-week session. See how you both do. And if it works, you can always add more weeks next summer. Just know that once your son goes away to camp it means a lifetime of painful stories that start with, “One time when I was at camp…..”
Raschelle: Everything I know about camping I learned from reading The Lord of the Flies, so I’m pretty sure you can guess how I feel about camping. I can’t understand it at all and worry about the people who claim to enjoy it. But, as I see it, the issue here isn’t really about your son, is it? He wants to go, so send him. The bigger issue is you fighting it … why do you want to keep him home? I say send him, you can enjoy some time without your son and he will inevitably pick up some survival skills, which may come in handy when we all find ourselves living in the Hunger Games.
My daughter is going to sleepaway camp for two weeks this summer. The camp has strict rules about the use of cell phones and does not allow them. My daughter is freaking out about not being able to phone home while she is away. I am torn—should we follow the rules or try to find a way around them?
—Can You Hear Me Now?
Patty: I actually have a paperweight on my desk that says, ‘Skirt the Rules’, so you would think I would be all about finding a way to let your daughter keep her phone. However, your daughter is lying to you. She does not want to keep her phone so she can call you. She wants to keep her phone so she can text her friends, check in on Facebook and do whatever it is they do on Instagram. Do not encourage your daughter to sneak the phone into her cabin. If you are concerned about her traveling without access to her phone, most camps will happily store the phone while your daughter is at camp, where she will, hopefully, learn how to eat a meal without looking down in her lap and texting. It will be liberating for both of you!
Raschelle: OK, as I’ve said before, all I can imagine when I think of summer camp is life in a dystopian society, where the elites oppress the masses until a plucky heroine sparks a rebellion. So keep that in mind as you decide whether to take this advice. I believe that these camp rules have become draconian: no food from home, no pictures of pets, nothing that would make the camper homesick. To be honest, none of these makes any sense; we all need to be able to phone home from time to time; did we learn nothing from ET? So, of course she should bring her phone if it makes her more comfortable, plus she may need it to escape the revolution.
Photo by Colin Miller of Strauss Peyton
Pictured: Raschelle Burton and Patty Hannum
[Patty Hannum has a deep, abiding love of nature and enjoys it regularly on The Discovery Channel. Raschelle Burton used to go on float trips in the Current River but stopped when she realized, thanks to her older brothers, she spent more time in the river than in the canoe.]