How to be an annoying camp parent
Inspired by a recent New York Times piece about parents of children who go to sleep-away camp, here are a few tips for those who want to emulate their behavior. Note that all of the incidents described here are mentioned in the Times article.
1. Don’t tell the camp about your child’s medications: Hey! Johnny is going to camp! Let’s see what happens if he doesn’t take his Ritalin all summer! To add to the fun, let’s not tell the counselors, so that when he acts out even stronger than he did before he started taking medication, they’ll have no idea what’s going on!
2. Call constantly: One parent in the Times piece is quoted as saying, “I called the camp at 7 a.m. and Dan [the camp director]
The photo is from the NYT article, about a camp called Bryn Mawr. My dad actually called me to point out how all the moms are jumping up and down and the dads look like they’re dying of boredom.
Hello!
We call those kind of parents as MONSTER Parents in Japan.
I love to try the strategies in Japan…
For good measure, apply these strategies and more to your child’s school. Who cares if the teachers have requested parents to stop walking their third graders into class and helping them with the morning homework? Surely this rule applies to everyone else except you.
Bug juice is kool-aid. We liked it.Back in those days nobody thought about “healthy” food.
Uh, that photo’s of parents saying goodbye to their kids at Bryn Mawr. Not summer camp.
I am sure this is a growing trend – esp. with the technology to support it (cells/blackberries/etc), but I clearly recall similar situations among a few of my unfortunate peers 25 years ago when I was a youth. The mom who snuck up to camp in the dark of night to “check on” her daughter (my friend) just to make sure the cabins were safe. Jesus H Christ. And the mom of a son who asked for a list of friends’ phone numbers AND the number to the mall/movie theater every damn time we all went out as a group (this was way, way before cell phones.) Oh my god. Luckily both individuals are now very happy, self-supporting adults who have chosen to live on the opposite side of the country from those old apron strings.