Welcome to our new, semi-regular column! After 18 years as camp moms, we’ve seen it all and are ready to share our wisdom (or at least our opinions) with you.
To get to know each other, we’re answering a question we get a lot and you probably do, too:
Why do you send your children away for the whole summer?? Don’t you like them??
Marla:
Friends for Life, camp friends, best friends. Go-To friends…These are all descriptions we hear when our kids talk about their camp relationships.
Who knew “Friends for Life,” actually means friends who help you and your kids navigate actual Life?
When I became a Herzl mommy, I had no way of knowing our entire family would make friendships with entire other families. We have shared B’nai Mitzvot, births, deaths, engagements, weddings, high school, and college graduations, first jobs and many, many, Shabbat dinners together…
As a non-Twin Cities family, all of our children have Minnesota homes. Laundry is done. Father’s Day is celebrated with grandpas and uncles. Emergency Target runs are made by their Minnesota mommies. Haircuts are arranged…You get the point. Mama Mindy even knows everyone’s chocolate chip cookie preferences.
It all began with the annual Mama Mindy phone call to camp about her son’s peanut allergies. She reached out to let us know how to prepare our sons to live with her son’s challenge.
What began as neurotic Jewish mother check-ins, has become a highly valued friendship. We check in for important life moments, even when it has nothing to do with Herzl business. Truth is, it’s all about Herzl and camp is much more than summer…
Mindy:
Like Marla, I can genuinely say that the friendships my three children have made at camp is by far the best thing for my kids and our family.
When Josh was in Noar with his best friend, Matthew Weisberg, he told me about two boys from Kansas City, Daniel Goldberg and Sam Abrams. He said, “They were annoying because they cheered for the Kansas City Chiefs,” and, of course, you only cheer for the Minnesota Vikings.
The following year, the four boys were put together in a cabin and a friendship that goes so deep was formed. This is the kind of friendship where you would drop everything in the middle of the night and fly across the world if you had to.
With my kids, camp friends always come first. They become family. They grow up together. First, learning to remember to change your underwear, then your sheets, and then everything life throws at you. They do it all with their Herzl friends. Nothing warms my heart more knowing that their camp friends will be by their side forever.
The other benefit is the friendships I have made. We are all family now and nothing feels better.
So, Mazel Tov to you for deciding to send your child to camp! Should you have a concern as a camp parent, we are always interested in sharing our opinions…Believe me… Send your questions and concerns to [email protected].
