Camp Days

Every year my kid escapes for a month.  With his best friend in the world.  What boy doesn't want that?  He & his "bro" talk about camp all year long--I'm happy that he is able to do it & loves it this much.  I think it is very good for him as an only child too. (Not really--he has a "brother" and a younger "sister")  Boy do I miss him.  I said this about my beach week--I missed him not being part of that--but I digress.  Parenting has changed a lot since I went to camp.  

This post was triggered by an email from my sister--she'd forwarded her daughter's "Weekly Camp Report".  As I'd forwarded my son's.  Yup--when I was in camp there was no such thing as a camp report--my impression was that the less my parents knew about what I doing or how I was doing at camp the better.  Camp was the black hole of parenting back then.  Send the kid down to North Carolina on a plane & wave bye-bye for the summer.  "Parent Party-time!!  WOOHOO!!  No Kids!!"   Well, that's my impression of it.   How times have changed!  Now every week I receive a letter from my kid's camp telling me what he's been up to--he even has to write a section.  I love, Love, LOVE this.  Since my son's letters are sporadic and sketchy at best (good, that means he's having a blast), this serves as a way to really know what's up.   When did camps start this?  Or have they always done it & I'm just being let in on the secret now.  Meh.  Is it a result of the "Helicopter Parent" syndrome?  Does that make me a Helicopter Parent?? ACK!!  I'm developing a complex....

Nah...I'm just interested in my son's life--  :)

Truth be told--I also like having time off being a parent--call it a bit of "Parent Respite Care".  By the time I get kinda used to not having him around, he comes home & I realize how much I'm glad that I'm being a mom again.