This week’s article in The Cut, “How Camp Visiting Day Became a Competition for Moms” (especially with the tag line “I Swear, They’re Flying in Nobu Sushi for Their Kids’), struck a nerve – especially among those of us who live and breathe the camp world year-round. It paints Visiting Day as a showy, competitive spectacle driven by parents desperate to impress.
And sure, there are moments of excess – the overflowing candy, the trendy pillows (or this year’s hottest item: the Labubu), the sushi platters – but that’s not what Visiting Day is about. That’s not what camp is about.
And let’s be honest: that article wasn’t about celebrating camp. It was about parents showing off, living vicariously through their children in an unhealthy way. The fact that many parents didn’t want to be quoted when referencing the overindulgence says it all.
What the article missed is the most important truth:
Camp itself is the gift.
It’s not about what parents bring in coolers or their carefully curated Instagram posts.
The real magic of sleepaway camp is everything that can’t be bought:
-
Resilience
-
Independence
-
Friendship
-
Confidence
-
Joy
It’s the highlights of childhood.
For weeks at a time, campers unplug, live in nature, and discover who they are when their parents aren’t managing their every move. They make friends face-to-face, without screens or social media. They try new things, laugh at themselves, navigate homesickness, and build bunkmate bonds that last a lifetime.
They fight, they make up, they laugh until their bellies hurt.
They learn how to waterski, make a bed, and what to do when their toothbrush falls face down on the bunk floor (pro tip: send multiples!).
They figure out who they are – without a smartphone or a filter.
The true luxury of sleepaway camp is the freedom to be messy, silly, and fully present in a way that is almost impossible back home.
It’s doing swim tests in a cold lake early in the morning.
It’s singing your heart out in the dining hall with your friends and counselors.
It’s the thrill of Color War or Olympics, the pride of climbing the ropes course, the inside jokes whispered with bunkmates by flashlight.
The Cut focuses on the optics of privilege – but what it misses is the deep equality that camp creates.
Bunks don’t care whether you’re a CEO’s kid or a scholarship camper.
Everyone wears the same camp T-shirt.
Everyone eats the same grilled cheese.
Everyone shares bug spray and fans on hot, humid nights.
That’s the point.
Even Visiting Day, at its best, is a celebration of growth – not a competition.
If you’re a camp parent, focus on what actually matters: being there, not being seen.
Kids crave connection, not excess.
They want hugs more than cupcakes, undivided attention more than trendy gifts.
And sure – sometimes parents overdo it because it’s hard: we miss them!
But in truth, Visiting Day is a glimpse into how happy, capable, and resilient our kids have become on their own.
As parents and professionals, we understand this well.
The designer outfits and cookie cakes aren’t what shape campers.
It’s those precious, unplugged days in the woods –
Learning how to make friendship bracelets.
Playing sports all day long.
Memorizing all the words to the camp cheers and songs in the camp play.
Whispering with bunkmates under the covers.
It’s easy to mock the excess.
It’s easy to roll eyes at parents who overpack their kids’ favorite snacks from home.
But reducing camp to a single day of indulgence misses the fifty other days that matter so much more.
We who live and breathe camp know what is real:
It’s the tears at closing campfire.
The lifelong friendships that survive college, weddings, and middle-of-the-night phone calls.
It’s what gets our campers through those cold, winter nights knowing their summer months are on the horizon.
The truth that rings true every time: camp friends are the best friends.
That is the true luxury.
So keep your sushi stories if you must – and maybe some of us do bring sushi.
But don’t reduce camp to that.
We’ll keep telling the real stories of sleepaway camp, and we’ll keep sending our kids back to the woods, year after year, because what they find there – the hugs, the laughter, the memories, and the independence they carry home – will never fit inside a cooler.
About the contributor:
Summer 365 is the leading consulting service created by and for parents, driven by a customized, holistic approach to finding the best summer experience for each child and family. Through in-person visits and meetings with camps and programs, our momboss team of experts have insider knowledge on more than 500 top sleepaway camps and summer programs for children and teens ages 7–18. Our service makes it easy for parents to find whatever they’re looking for—whether it’s traditional or specialty sleepaway camp, community service, performing arts, enrichment, wilderness, or language immersion programs.