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‘Seinfeld letters’

Essay advises parents who write to kids at camp

Camp letters
A mother holds up letters written by her teenage children, who are away at summer camp. Photo: The Toronto Star

Kids who go away to summer camp aren’t the only ones who write letters to stay in touch with loved ones back home. Parents put pen to paper too.

The challenge is striking the right tone, according to Rebecca Eckler, a mom who writes frequent letters to her daughter at camp.

“You can’t make your children think they are missing anything exciting at home for fear they’ll get jealous. Your can’t write how much you miss them for fear they’ll get homesick. Thus, are we all writing Seinfeld letters … about nothing?” Eckler wrote in a recent Toronto Star essay.

She includes advice from Mark Diamond, a camp owner who encourages parents to never say they miss their child. “It’s fine to say how much you love them and how proud you are of them, but you don’t want them to feel badly,” he says.

Other tips include writing notes from a pet’s point of view.

Eckler also suggests getting crafty. Last year, she sent her daughter a note on an item the girl probably didn’t expect.

It read: “This is a note on a toilet paper roll. Hope you think it’s funny!”

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