Since so much of the focus in American media is on individuality, it's important to limit family interactions. This is why, especially when kids are the focus of stories, parents are killed off screen or otherwise limited. While summer camp situations do happen, I'd argue the norm is more-so that summer camp is a day-care during the day while parents are off at work, if you will. It's not as often a 'months at a time' sort of situation. You drop off the kids and then pick them up after work and they tell you about how bored they were dissecting a stupid owl pellet or walking around the woods with a counselor. Maybe they imprinted snakeskin on a piece of paper with oil. The usual summer camp bullshit.

Regardless, the summer camp routine is an easy way of eliminating parents in the story without creating a bunch of emotional issues. By not having the authoritative mentor figure of a parent around, it emphasizes the agency and individuality of the child as a character in a narrative. That's all the trope is really about.

>>83085312
not mine! my parents loved us and didn't want to spend any time away from us. they knew what it was like to have cold and distant parents. Mom's mom straight up tried to kill her, sent her off to boarding school in europe, that kinda shit. dad's parents each got remarried and had a new kid (with the same name) whom they gave all their attention to.
and i think they knew full well you only get so much time with your kids before they're gone forever. even less after the divorce and they only got us part time. then they each kept fucking up and driving us to move in with the other one, over and over. sometimes opposite ones so we got a break from each other, which was nice.

>>83085312

When I was a kid I went to camp, not for that long, but for a week or two. Then there was the actually camping, as compared to the organized camps, that happened another two times or so with family of mine ot a friends or as boy scout thing. I'm from the mid west though, and all we really have going for us is mountains and outdoor stuff. Kids on either coast would probably have had very different experiences.

>>83085312
I went to a summer camp as a kid. It was some social interaction camp designed for introverts. I was there for 4 weeks and it was alright after the first week.

It's not super common, I didn't know anyone else growing up that went to any sort of summer camp other than one friend that went to space camp, and one side that was a boy scout.

>>83085312
Most kids just good-off at home all summer.

>>83085806
that actually sounds fun. i got put in a bunch of 'please have social interactions' programs, but none of them remembered to fill them up with cool people. instead i got put in with the psychos and jerks. those people had NO problem socializing.

>>83085712

Also it wasn't my parents getting rid of me, camp was fucking fun.I'd get to go run around and play in the woods, mess with bows and guns and knives, build big fucking fires and roast marshmallows, gamble with the other kids for candy, and play pranks and scare the shit out of the younger campers. It was a great time.

>>83085854
>good-off
is that what they're calling it now

>>83085909
not to sound like an overprotective-ass modern parent but that sounds dangerous as fuck.

>>83085312
I don't think it's quite as common as shows would lead you to believe. That said, I did go to a science camp (just for the day) for a few weeks when I was about 10. It was pretty fun.

>>83085923
No, that's what my phone's spelling checker auto-corrects to.

>>83085984

Well one of my buddies did nearly cut his finger off, but he was a dumbass. The guns and bows were at a range (at least for the organized camps) and we had supervision. Sides we knew better than to aim at people. I don't remember any burn victims, but we did have some kids get scuffed up running in the woods, but honestly kids can get scrapped up in the city too. I think it was good for me, and I remember it fondly.

>>83085984
>overprotective-ass modern parent
Well you do sound like one. I was playing with bows and guns (pellet) when I was under the age of 13. My dad started having me tend the fires we used to clear brush when I was 15.

It's only dangerous if you're a total fucking moron than needs to be reminded to breath.

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I never got to go to one of those fancy camps where you sleep in dormitory style cabins for months at a time because those were too expensive for my family. I kinda always wanted to do it, and Harry Potter made boarding school look awesome as hell too, but I think most american kids don't do that kind of thing. I looked it up and those kinds of summer camps exist, but I'm guessing only wealthy families can afford them. I went to a daycamp and it was boring as hell. We didn't even hike through woods or make friendship bracelets or anything, it was more like we were dropped off at a park and the supervisors made sure we didn't stray too far from the playground until our parents picked us up. I vaguely remember talk about a trip to a local lake, but for some reason I didn't happen to go on the trip. I'm pretty sure daycamps exist and are popular because of the large amount of american parents that work and don't know what to do with their kids in summer during their work hours, which would go around the school day schedule. So camps and daycare services charge to substitute as school and make sure the kids don't kill themselves during the day or something.

So, yeah, pretty much what >>83085430 said, it's more a tv thing. I always did think that the families on tv must be in a higher economic class than me because they could always afford shit like summer camp for their kids.

>>83086119
i'm all for bows and bb guns. as long as you know that if you were to hurt yourself, your dad would hurt you worse.
brushfires i dont think even adults should be doing

>>83086180
They were contained. We cut fire lines in our property and I was basically just there to make sure the wind didn't pick up and start blowing shit everywhere.

>>83085909

>I'd get to go run around and play in the woods, mess with bows and guns and knives, build big fucking fires and roast marshmallows, gamble with the other kids for candy, and play pranks and scare the shit out of the younger campers.

Fuck that, I just want to stay at home and play mario 64.

>>83085691
My sister used to beg my parents to send her to boarding school because she wanted a better education. They pretty much just told her to wait til she was older and then just go to college.

>>83085430
I can vouch for this anon. I was a councilor for a summer camp for two years in a row and it took place in a park near a populated city and was essentially a 9 to 5 babysitting center.

I went to a 2 week camp at a university a couple hours from my home. The counselors were uni students. I borrowed this one counselors's magic deck without asking and he got real butt hurt when I returned it. I was also given a stern talkin to because I was caught stepping into the girls dorm.

>>83086262

But I could play Mario 64 or Zelda any time of the year, camp was my chance to go out in the wilds and imagine I was on an adventure myself.

I fucking hated camp, in no small part because it was a rich kids camp and the only reason my family could afford is was that my mom was also there as staff. Being the poor kid whose mom was around made things even worse than being a fat kid at a sports camp was already going to be.

Only boy scout camp, and that was just for a week.

I went to quite a few summer camps over the years, mostly boy scouts, but some educational science ones as well (which were only during the day, you'd go back home at night).

None of them lasted longer than a week, though. Mostly a lot of fun.

>>83085909
>run around and play in the woods, mess with bows and guns and knives, build big fucking fires and roast marshmallows, gamble with the other kids for candy, and play pranks and scare the shit out of the younger campers
>It was a great time
All of this and more. If you grew up with bad experiences camping, then I'm sorry. I was fortunate to have very good camping experiences in my childhood. I must have spent over 100 nights in the woods on various trips. Some of the best memories of my life. If an animator/writer was inspired enough during these times, of course they'd put it in their show. I would.

>>83085312
I used to go to an overnight summer camp for three weeks a year for a few years. I think my parents sent me because I was an only child while both my parents came from big families, and they thought I was missing out on having to learn to deal with living with people my own age. Also, we moved around a lot so it was a chance to hang out with kids outside of school who I could actually speak English to (but their plan didn't work, I'm still socially stunted).

Usually kids would only stay three weeks. When kids spent the whole summer, it was usually because both their parents had hardcore workloads at their jobs and it was like an extended afterschool program. And there was a lot of "character building" talk but then again, this was in Texas so that might just be a Texan thing.

>>83085312
Nowadays no. It's one of the many cliches left over from the 1950s that hasn't quite disappeared as a TV/movie trope.

>>83085312
Was more busy on the farm.

>>83086228
oh cool. bood job.

>>83086358
so it was more like she brought you around instead of daycare. yeesh.

You see, when baby boomers were kids, summer camp and scouting were extremely popular partially because an entire generation of parents had been brought up in WWII and had a military-style mindset.

>>83085312
Mine did for me and my sister. We live on Long Island though so it wasn't the woods or nowhere. it was a summer camp that was in a school. I remember being accused for touching a girls boob one time. Weird time in my life.

>>83085312
I went to summer camp every year for at least a month until I started working all summer. I really miss it and am super nostalgic for those days actually.

My parents sent me to a summer camp for a week while they went on vacation to the Florida Keys :|

>>83085312
Never went to camp but kids always did in movies and tv, so I thought there was something wrong with my family or I was weird (which was true, but for different reasons). Although in the summer I would spend like a month at a friend's house.

I never went to summer camp for more than a day or two, but things like Gravity Falls and Psychonauts still manage to make me nostalgic for that atmosphere.

>>83088618
that's how it was for me and vacation. our parents didnt get vacation time, we were lucky if they didnt work their holidays. we certainly never traveled except visiting grandparents, which we did a total of 3 times. we definitely didnt have leftover money to go to like.. things that cost money. Families on tv always had these big family vacations that cost a bunch of money and time and theyd go traveling.
i mean we went to the zoo and shit like that. and i got fucktons of toys and we went out to eat pretty often.. when dad wasnt cooking gourmet shit. so i never felt poor but we didnt do shit TV families did

Summer camp was a pretty common thing when I was a kid. It was usually just for a week or two at a time, and they weren't all overnight camps.

My girlfriend's parents dumped her at a boarding school and she hasn't seen either of them in over 8 months.

>>83091322
at least she has you. now you can rescue her and shit.
unloving parents sucks for a kid but is awesome for a mate. no in-law visits.. even better if your parents love her, you get her like folded into your own family.

>>83085312
>>83085854

Yeah, Phineas & Ferb is pretty representative of the average American summer, sans the zany adventures. But summer camps or going to stay with a relative like in GF are certainly a common phenomenon.

>>83091322
I've heard of this "ship you off to boarding school" as a punishment or threat trope like it's a negative kind of thing to do, but I never understood it. Boarding school always sounded really great to me and I don't know why some people treat it like it's evil.

>>83085691
>with the same name

jesus christ

>>83091572

>Boarding school always sounded really great to me and I don't know why some people treat it like it's evil.
If you get shipped off to Catholic boarding school like my mom did in the early 60s, it sure is.

>>83091715
yeah but the hypermoralist 60s are dead m8. now it's different

but shipping your kids to boarding school as punishment is like getting a tattoo saying "i'm a failure of a parent"

>>83091882
What about sending them just because?

>>83091882
they always consider it making up for their past mistakes, and make a show of 'apologizing' for 'raising you so badly' that you 'need' that. it's just a lazy way of justifying once again doing the easy thing which is now something different from what it was before.

>>83088325
Yeah, it sucked. And the camp wasn't only for little kids, either; I was stuck in that shitty situation every summer from age 7 to 15.
>>83091572
I imagine it strongly depends on what kind of boarding school you get sent to.

>>83091486
>you can rescue her and shit
>if your parents love her
Done and done, problem is that she doesn't want to go college now. She just wants to graduate, move in with me, give me a child and be a housewife.

>>83091572
It's less about the school itself, hers is pretty cool for example, and more about the fact that your folks don't want you around.

>>83092280
sounds good to me dude. college is a major scam anyway. just figure out a simple part-time job she can do from home on the internet for a little extra cash. even if it requires a basic certification that's better'n a degree

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>Dropping your kid off somewhere so you don't have to deal with them is an American concept.

>>83092385
I think boarding schools were originally a British thing, actually.

>>83092385
>>83092482
yep. and a very edwardian thing too. kids were seen as something like a disease, and just ignored. just shut up in the attic and maybe given a nanny or governess. it says a lot about the next few generations of english people, and upperclass americans as well.

>>83092344
Yeah, I'm looking into that. I tried dissuading her and convinving her to go to college to be a dentist or something but she's too headstrong. Plus it's not like the idea of a young bride waiting for me at home 50s style bothers me, it's just weird. Feels like a Bojack&Penny situation at times.

>>83092606
Having never met edwardians, what was the effect?

>>83093137
the only thing to worry about is that she changes her mind later
but yknow, waking up 15 years later and realizing you wasted your career is one thing.. waking up 15 years later and realizing you never had kids? and even if you DO start having them now, you'll be old and grey and tired before they're grown up? way worse. plus they start chancing being retarded
go ahead and let her be a housewife now, if she wants to do something else later, it's doable.

>>83093173
remember peter pan, mary poppins, and all that other weirdly twee english shit? all the infantility? the flaccidity of the uppercrust gentleman? it pretty much all derives from the era when king edward was on the throne. i mean i'm generalizing like mad but..

Growing up, there would be summer camp for about a week or so, but I guess it's different now.

Americans can't tolerate each other. They divorce and re-marriage all the time and
throw away their kids once they're legal, many times even before thanks to the divorce

>>83093137
>Bojack&Penny
Hold up, how old are you two?

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I went to a summer res camp for about five years, and then was an assistant counselor there for three years after that. It was only ever for one or two weeks; my parents weren't trying to get rid of me, just trying to give me a new experience (plus my mom did the same when she was a kid) Quite a mix of people there: some nice, some chill, some weird, some assholes, but overall it was a fun time. It was a pretty nice camp too, lots of good facilities and equipment at a prime spot on a lake. But what other anons have said holds true: it wasn't cheap.

Also, I'm fairly certain that someone who worked on Camp Lazlo went to the same camp as me, because in one of the episodes the bean scouts sing a camp song that has the exact same tune as our camp song.

>>83093689

>doesn't want to go to college
I think we can ballpark it.

>>83093786

I'm jelly.

I only had one opportunity to that when I was young (space camp) and I turned it down because I was too autistic to go off by myself at the time. Like a year later I went on a two-week class trip to China.

>>83094055
well since you're alive i take it you didnt say the wrong thing

>>83094089

m8 I went back several years later (another school thing) and literally shitposted about the government (I sent a text message saying "Communism is stupid.") for shits and giggles. It's not North Korea.

>>83094206
it really kinda is though. http://www.businessinsider.com/china-uses-mass-surveillance-to-curb-unrest-2016-4?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=referral in extravagant fashion.

>>83093213
Thanks, man. I appreciate the support.

>>83093689
She's 17, I'm 25.

>>83094252

Of course, the CCP is a deeply oppressive regime, but it has enough tact to not throw western tourists in prison for minor thought-crimes.

>>83094326
score. dont let anyone get on your case. that kinda gap was normal in our parents' day.

so hey speaking of shit from tv that you never seen in real life, teachers confiscating shit. like it's one thing if they dont let you have it back til the end of the day, but on tv they can just TAKE your shit. that'd be illegal even if they werent a government entity.

>>83094471
i mean, they'd let you out, yeah. and deny you were ever in.
or would they deny you ever visited? just make sure someone has proof of where you were.
anyway i was mostly having a giggle.

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I didn't go camping as a kid, I just sat at home and played video games and drew pictures.
These cartoons remind me that I missed out on a bunch.

>>83094511

Well it's an interesting discussion. I'll probably read that BI article since I've been out of the loop on this subject for a little while.

As for your hypothetical, if you really did something to annoy them they would probably deport you. Anything short of that, and they'd just ignore you.

>>83094619

This thread reminded me that I didn't go camping, but I got to do lots of other cool things. Feels mixed.

>>83085312
It's an old trope from the 50s.

If you really want to know what an American summer is like, watch Pete & Pete.

>>83095457
Or you could have watched my neighbor circa 2006.

>>83094483
The dean of students or whatever her title was tried to pull that at my highschool years ago. I'd brought in an antique hat to show as part of a project or something, and one of my friends tried it on for a second for funsies in the main hall before classes had started. The dean came over and yanked it because she had a firm no hats policy and I guess she was accustomed to taking kids' hats, and I freaked out because it was a very valuable family heirloom. I got it back but the dean had purposefully tried to give me the impression I wouldn't, and I got very pissed that day.

>>83094326
>She's 17, I'm 25.
That's both against the law and morally wrong

>>83094326
>She's 17, I'm 25
Maybe hold out on the settling down? Not that you seem to be in a rush. And keep encouraging her to get some sort of technical skills.