Obsessed Parents Overanalyze Photos of Their Kids at Camp
Summer sleep-away camps regularly post photos of boys and girls during games, meals and assemblies, reassuring parents their children are alive and having fun. Many moms and dads aren’t convinced. They scrutinize every pixel of their child’s expression and body language for clues about their emotional state.
These parents may want their children to gain independence at camp, but they can’t help poring over photos to see if the kids are smiling, engaged in activities or circled by friends. Anything less—a child walking alone or caught in a neutral expression—triggers questions and deep analysis. “It’s an addiction," said Stacy Johnson, of Manalapan, N.J.
Every morning, she scrolls through hundreds of photos looking for her 11-year-old daughter Liv, and her son Jace, 8. They go for seven weeks to Camp Chen-A-Wanda in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Johnson is more concerned about Jace, a first-time camper.
In a video from a dance party at Camp Chen-A-Wanda, she saw he wasn’t joining the fun. She guessed he was sad because parent-visiting day had ended only a few hours earlier. Obsessed parents gather evidence from photos to tell their campers via letters and calls to change their shirts or slather on more sunscreen.
Others, desperate for information, offer children cash rewards if they try to appear in more camp photos. Dayna Solomon, of Brooklyn, was disturbed by a photo of her 13-year-old-son Jake, a camper at Susquehannock in Pennsylvania. The boy was shown walking under a bridge made by the outstretched arms of campers.
She immediately texted her husband, Seth. “Hm. He doesn’t look thrilled," she wrote.
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