/opinion

At Sleepaway Camp: Joy and Misery
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/opinion/at-sleepaway-camp-joy-and-misery.html

Re “ ‘Hello Mother, Hello Daughter,’ ” by Jennifer Weiner (Op-Ed, July 24):

I was sent off to Girl Scout camp at age 8 and hated it. The campers spent their days mostly in the bunks crying with homesickness, with nasty teenage girls as the counselors. It was a waste of my hardworking father’s money, as well as traumatic for me.

I asked my son if he wanted to attend sleepaway camp, and for years he wasn’t interested until he had the opportunity to travel to Crete as part of a youth jazz band. He had a great time and has been attending summer jazz programs ever since.

My feeling about sleepaway camp is that you shouldn’t send children until they are ready to go. While there could be all sorts of justifications for this stance, one reason that stands out is: Why would you want to spend all that money just to make your child miserable?