I worked extra weekends to afford my 13-year-old daughter Mia the summer camp she had dreamed about for years.
When I picked her up after three weeks, the director pulled me aside and showed me a chore chart filled with Mia’s name.
She had been doing other campers’ chores—and even giving up activities she loved to help them.
Then the director told me about Trail Day, when Mia gave away the horseback-riding spot she had waited years for just because another girl missed registration.
The truth broke my heart.
Since losing her father, Mia had watched me struggle financially and convinced herself that everything I spent on her created a debt she had to repay.
The camp director wasn’t banning her.
Instead, the camp created a new policy called “The Mia Rule”: campers had to experience their own opportunities before giving them away.
Months later, I saw Mia put back her favorite cereal because it cost $6.
I put it back in the cart.
“You don’t have to earn every good thing that comes your way,” I told her.
Sometimes, the hardest lesson isn’t learning how to give.
It’s learning that you’re allowed to receive, too.