47: The Psychology of Sleepaway Camp (for Kids and Parents) with Eva Heyman and Caroline Leventhal

This week I’m joined by the hilarious, honest NYC moms behind the podcast Mic’d & Medicated, Eva Heyman and Caroline Leventhal, in what starts as a conversation about sleepaway camp turns into something much deeper (and very funny).

Sleepaway camp might sound niche, but it’s a topic I get asked about constantly ever since I started sharing about how we were looking at camp for Tess this upcoming summer (I can’t believe she’s leaving us so soon!). I get questions  from parents all over the world. Why do we send our kids away for the summer? Who is it really for? Our kids? Us? Both?

We unpack the phenomenon behind camp and all the questions that come with it:

– What age is “right”?

– Co-ed or single gender?

– How long is too long?

– Is camp about independence, identity, resilience… or parents needing space to breathe?

– And how much of our own childhood experiences shape the decision?

We also go inward, sharing whether we went to camp ourselves, the experiences that stayed with us (good and hard), and how those memories quietly inform the choices we’re making now as parents.

For me, camp was the first place I truly felt like I belonged. It shaped who I became, gave me lifelong friendships, and remains one of the most formative chapters of my life. That belief deeply influenced the schools I chose for my daughters and the camps we explored together.

This episode is real, reflective, laugh-out-loud funny, and full of nuance. It’s a conversation about sleepaway camp not just as a parenting decision but as a decision about giving your child an experience where they discover who they are, who they can be without us and what it feels like to truly belong. 

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