GRRRR OT- need to vent

[MomtoEmIs&Ow]

So my DD is at camp this week and I want to send her an e-mail. It's late, and I want to get it done. I go on to the site, and I am annoyed! You now have to pay to send a camper am e-mail!!! What a load of cr@p! I just want to send her an e-mail! GRRRRR

Not like we didn't spend a bunch of $$$ to send her there already, and they want us to pay to keep in touch.

I just wish I had known before, then I could have left letters for her @ camp. I did leave her a card for her second last day there (the counselors hand them out on the day specified) saying we would see her soon.

I will pay tomorrow, but right now I am REALLY annoyed! You have to do all is registration junk too! GRRR

Thanks for letting me vent

 

[weesignlanguage]

Yeah...I think that is pretty shabby. I remember being at camp and hoping I would get a postcard (snail mail was all there was then...lol) from my parents b/c I was soooo homesick. Can't believe that the camp is trying to make money off of parent's wanting to communicate with their kiddos!! Can you call her or are cell phones not allowed?? Sorry about this!

 

[powellrj]

my dd has gone to camp for the past several years and they have always delivered the emails we sent. For some reason none of the emails were delivered this year. It didn't affect me because I had also included cards for every day, but several parents just emailed and they were really mad. I don't blame them. Don't offer the service if you don't want to follow through.

 

[The Disney Bunch]

that is pretty awful. I would complain big time. It should be free & if it isn't free, disclosed ahead of time. how awful and petty.

 

[kacaju]

Do that many kids really expect letters from the parents?? I sent my two dd's to camp for a week and I never try to call/write to them.

 

[abdmom]

My dd just got back from camp a week ago. On the second day she was at camp, I logged into the website to send her an email and there was no email available! Last year when she had gone, I could not only send email, but also a little puzzle along with it. I felt awful. It was too late to mail a letter.

When I went to pick her up on the last day, there were soooo many fewer kids there than last year. She was also supposed to have a minor in art during camp, but no art was offered.

I think this will be the last year she goes to that camp.

 

[I_Know_You2!]

Do that many kids really expect letters from the parents?? I sent my two dd's to camp for a week and I never try to call/write to them.

When we went to camp, you didn't get lunch unless you wrote your stupid postcard. They are a ball to go back and read, though!

Sending emails is too weird for me. I'm getting old.

 

[powellrj]

I know all 3 of my kids have been going to the same camp for almost 20 years and they all expect to get something from home everyday. You aren't allowed to mail things or call them, but they have a letter writing station set up where you can write letters and leave them or have them already written and just drop them off. It usually just a little note card with some kind of thinking of you message. I know the first time the oldest went we didn't know about doing this and we heard about it because he was the only kid that didn't get mail everyday. I learned my lesson because when he joined the army he was the only person to get mail every single day he was in!

Now that my youngest is going to the same camp, they have email, but like I said earlier, I guess for some reason it didn't get passed out this year. Its just habit now when I am packing them, I also write little notes to drop off at the letter writing station. They don't send anything home because they are only there a week. It would be getting to us when they are already home!

 

[happymommy]

Yes that is crappy!

I would contact them and let them know!

On the other hand, maybe it's best not to hear back from home. I think it could make them homesick. I don't know, as we haven't done sleepaway camp yet ever.

Definitely let them know that you don't like that you have to PAY for email! I would think in this era the kids could have either computer access daily or at least they can use their cell phones. For my kids, they would definitely have their cell phones with them (of course not take it out of the cabin as it could or would get ruined or lost).

 

[MomtoEmIs&Ow]

Thanks for the replies.
This year DD was a little apprehensive about camp, because last year she had a few 'snotty' girls in her cabin, so she wanted me to e-mail her everyday! She is 12 so I know she will be OK, I just don't want her to think that I forgot to e-mail her
I can't call her via cell phone, she does not have one. I think that she is to young. And she would lose it.

 

[kelma]

Do that many kids really expect letters from the parents?? I sent my two dd's to camp for a week and I never try to call/write to them.

I think they do. My dd just got back from camp and she had letters everyday (we dropped them off with her to be delivered on each day), but the little girl beside her was the only one in the cabin not to get any letters from her parents all week. My dd said she was very sad and even wrote to her parents and asked them to send her a letter.

From personal experience, I loved getting letters at camp and I love getting the letters my dd sends from camp

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

You better believe I'd be on the phone the next morning to the camp complaining to them - that is just nuts! Its not like emails cost anything! Sorry to hear you couldn't contact your kid - does she/he have a cell?

 

[disykat]

When I went to camp we all prayed we didn't get mail. Mail call was after dinner and whoever got the most mail got carried out of the mess hall and thrown in the pool!