Just because baby, it's cold outside, it's kind of fun to think about a warmer time of year and a summery kind of season. It's kind of fun to think about summer camp. I've been both a camper and a counselor and I'm here to tell you they are both incredible experiences.

As a camper, I can remember long days of what felt like absolutely nothing although there were always activities happening all the time. I can remember long nights filled with fun chatter and ghost stories, facials and talks about future boyfriends. I can remember too -- and maybe this is best of all -- being away from home and realizing ... somewhat abashedly ... just how great home really was.

I didn't go away to camp until I was 12 and that was a little late, I found out. Most of my cabin mates were camp veterans who started with one-week overnight camps at age 8. By age 12, the girls I met at camp all had cabin buddies -- girls they knew from the previous summer who had opted to bunk together again, and I was envious of that. As a newcomer, I endured the curious glances of tightly woven cliques before they melted away and gave in to friendship. That's what made camp so great: real friendships happened easily because you became inexplicably linked together.

If all the world was a summer camp, we could all enjoy a tall glass of bug juice together -- that's Koolaid, folks -- served at lunch time. If all the world was a summer camp, we'd know the joy of hysterical laughter within a shaving cream fight in the middle of the night, far, far away from peevish parents. If all the world was a summer camp, we'd open fantastic care packages from home together and paw through odd gadgets and trinkets sent from home in search of the Bazooka Bubble Gum and extra batteries tucked in there.

My 14-year-old daughter is now a six-year veteran of a summer camp for girls. She has the best time of her life for three weeks each summer reconnecting with old friends and further cementing the experiences that she alone gets to have without mom and dad hovering over her. Sure, it's expensive, but her dad and I figure what else are we supposed to spend our money on? Summer camp provides the best summer education a kid could ever have. Nature hikes, swimming, tennis, horseback riding, archery, white-water rafting and everything else under the sun.

Sometimes we moms get weary from the day-in-day-out grind of caring for our children within a hectic life that includes work, assorted projects and of course, house cleaning. When my daughter's away at camp, I always do something fun to her room. First I get in there and give it a good, deep cleaning. Then I add some kind of touch that I know she will enjoy. One summer I painted her room the chartreuse green she had begged me for. In her room, by myself, I feel her presence and connect with how much I love her -- sometimes more than when she's home! When she's at camp, I also visit the post office more than at any other time of the year, and I hurry to the mailbox to see if she's written. And most times she hasn't. Because she's having the time of her life ... like I did as a camper and counselor.

And having the time of her life is all I've ever wanted for her, anyway.

Send your input to me at susan@daycommail.com.