I want to share something that happened to my son this summer — because I have a feeling my family is not alone.

My son just finished 8th grade. He is a good kid, a hard worker, and he wanted to do something meaningful with his summer. Like many boys his age, he wanted to earn a few dollars — not for anything extravagant, just the small things that every teenager wants to feel normal. As a mother whose budget is stretched thin, I simply cannot give him the little luxuries his friends seem to have. We scrimped and sacrificed just to scrape together enough money to send him to camp for one half of the summer. One half. That is what we could manage, and we were proud we pulled it off.

So when he was offered a position at a local day camp for the other half of the summer, we were both excited. Here was a chance for him to earn a few dollars, keep busy, and feel good about himself.

That excitement did not last long.

The job turned out to be nothing more than a shlepper — carrying equipment, hauling bags, doing the grunt work that no one else wanted to do. And the pay? Minuscule. Barely enough to just afford a Slurpee. There was no mentorship, no real role, no sense that anyone saw him as capable of something more. I have to ask openly: how is this not taking advantage of our boys? They are eager, they are willing, and they are young enough that they don’t yet know to push back. Camps are getting free labor from our sons while tossing them a few dollars and calling it a job. That is not right.

My son came home deflated. And honestly, so did I.

Here is what I know about my son: he is mature, responsible, and wonderful with younger kids. I see it every single day at home. Without being asked, he helps his younger siblings with their homework, plays with them, calms them down when they are upset, and looks out for them in a way that many adults would be proud of. Age is just an arbitrary number — what matters is character, and my son has it in abundance.

He would have made a wonderful junior counselor. He could have led activities, supported a bunk, and been a role model to younger campers the same way he is a role model to his own siblings. Instead, he was handed boxes to carry and sent home with almost nothing to show for it.

I am calling on camp directors across our community to create real, meaningful junior counselor roles for 8th graders — with fair compensation and genuine responsibility. These boys are not just extra hands. They are capable, caring young men who deserve the chance to earn something real.

For families like mine, it is not about getting rich. It is about giving our sons a fighting chance to feel proud of themselves — and maybe, just maybe, helping them earn back a little of what their parents worked so hard to give them.

A frustrated mom from Monsey.

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