July 31, 2003
Mom and Dad Re: Homesickness
In a thoughtful and emotional article for the NY Times, Katie Hafner looks into wired kids going off to camp. Counter to the notion of a sleep-over camp, where children go for weeks without speaking to their parents as they master a sense of independence, parents and offspring alike have come to expect a constant connection.
Yet the shift toward staying in touch is a double-edged sword. "Every time you reopen that connection, it intensifies the feelings of homesickness," said Marla Coleman, president of the American Camping Association and co-owner of Camp Echo in the Catskills.
And although cellphones are taboo at most camps, they still find their way into many a duffel bag. Of related interest, a previous article in textually.org, No cell phones at summer camps, on how a new criteria has come up when parents look into camps, is this camp "plugged" or "unplugged".
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