If you’re in a situation that you need to confide in my mother, please don’t think twice — my mother will never share anything with me!

1. We’re the kids whose parents work in camp, and we get an amazing summer in camp! We get the best of both worlds — the fun of camp, plus perks. We might know about trips and breakouts in advance (okay, not always…), we don’t have to do our own laundry, and we’re never homesick. We wait all year for this!

2. If you’re in a situation that you need to confide in my mother, please don’t think twice — my mother will never share anything with me! You can always feel comfortable knowing your privacy is respected. And if I ever pick up on things on my own, ’cuz teens do that well, I take the responsibility of being a staff kid seriously enough that I’d never pass anything along to my friends.

3. We’re happy to let you use our phone, microwave, sandwich maker, toaster oven, fridge… but please try not to take advantage. A kugel once in a blue moon is one thing, but that whole box of takeout your mother sent up from Pomegranate? Yeah, there’s no room for that. Sometimes I can’t find my own stuff in my family’s fridge, or don’t have a minute to call my own friends on my mother’s phone, because girls take advantage of my mother’s generosity. Our mothers would never say this, but we will: Please be considerate.

4. If you don’t like something my mother did, or if she docks you from an activity or otherwise reprimands you in some way, please don’t take it out on me or snob me out! I had nothing to do with the decision, I’m not my mother, and I just want to be me.

5. As we get older, some of us might move on to different camps. Being a staff kid is a blast, we love it, and we don’t move on because we don’t love “our” camp — we do! — but some of us want an independent camp experience for a year or two.

(Originally featured in Teen Pages, Issue 865)