A Camp Mom’s Confession: “My kids needed a screen detox. And so did I.”

I just counted the screens in my house: 3 televisions, 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, 1 Amazon Echo, 2 Kindles, 2 computers, and 2 car dashboards. That’s 14 screens. And that’s just at home.

Like most parents, we make heroic efforts toward screen-free play (“Go outside until you’re smelly” is surprisingly effective). But it’s 2026, and technology surrounds us whether we like it or not.

Which is exactly why I need to tell you about a place where there are literally zero screens.

Gwynn Valley.

And I don’t mean just for the campers. I mean everyone. For my kids’ entire session, they will never see a staff member with a phone (aka a “Tajar Box”). They will never spot a charger cord in their cabin. The camp photographers shoot on real cameras (remember those?). And when everyone gathers to sing at the Lodge built in 1941 and quite possibly the most magical place on earth — the lyrics go up on an overhead projector.

Yes, an overhead projector. Actual transparencies. Remember those!

Camp Gwynn Valley is a glorious 1990s analog fever dream: 10 full days of nature and singing and clapping and real friendships and trying new things and doing hard things.

And here’s my confession: I think I needed this more than they did. While my kids were off making lanyards and learning to paddle a canoe, I was going through the mail, helping campers, and—wait for it—looking at the mountains! (Did I sneak into the staff room to scroll the Gwynn Valley photo gallery [linked here]!) looking for my kids? Obviously. I’m human! Did I sneak in work at night (I have my own room) because of capitalism, et cetera? Guilty.) BUT my screen time was down 90 percent. Gwynn Valley did that.

When the camp’s mission statement invokes, The simple Joys of Childhood, it isn’t just a tagline, it’s a philosophy, modeled every single day by every single person there.

We could all stand to be a little more Gwynn Valley at home.

— Jeanne Lyons Davis, Camp Mom Session A

P.S. Message from the mom in the mailroom! Kids love to get mail: letters left on Opening Day, mailed through the post, or sent digitally through your CampInTouch account.