18 Questions I Have All About The Camp From The Cinematic Classic, ‘The Parent Trap’

As someone who has been a Camp Counselor for 3 summers, at 3 different Camps, I know just a bit about what the environment is like. Watching the Camp scenes from The Parent Trap made me wonder how in the heck the place is allowed to stay running, as it violates at least 20 liability codes, not to mention, the place is just so ridiculous there is no way a Camp like this can exist in real life.

1. There is not a single piece of trash in sight.

The lawns are groomed like a billionaire’s golf course, and the cabins looks like mini-resorts. This is NOT a legit children’s camp.

2. Are there really no parents that dropped their kids off??

All I see are kids! Where are the clingy, crying mothers taking pictures!? Did they all just drop the kids off and leave them without helping them check into their cabins? I know some parents would be so ecstatic to have their kid gone for the entire summer that they essentially toss them out and bail, but you can’t tell me that not ONE SINGLE PARENT will at least stay behind for 20 minutes to make sure their kid is settled?

3. There are only 2 adults running this spotless Camp???

HOW. I could forgive this if there was at least a glimpse of some Counselors running around, but there’s obviously not, due to the shenanigans that happen later…

4. The system of choice to direct campers to their cabin is by yelling their name and cabin assignment one time over a mega-phone.

Speaking from personal experience, there is no way that (especially in all this chaos) a camper will a) actually hear you the first time, b) actually know where they are going, especially if it’s their first time there (which we know that it IS for at LEAST both of Lindsey Lohan’s characters) and c) they immediately follow said instructions.

5. A boy ends up at a girl’s only camp and is just left there?

Where the heck is he sleeping? Or showering?? There are obviously no counselors around, let alone any male counselors, or probably any male staff period, because that would be creepy, so this would just cause so many problems and liability issues… The Camp staff should have called his parents immediately, and then picked him up as soon as possible. But they didn’t, because this kid is seen days later doing Camp activities with the girls.

6. This one is more of a personal one for me, but the kids are given actual swords to practice fencing with?

I know this has to happen for them to learn, but they are at CAMP. I have a hard enough time letting my kids run around with sticks, so swords would probably give me severe anxiety.

7. All of these girls only ever wear Camp apparel.

Assuming for the entire 6 weeks they are there, since we never see them wear any other kind of shirt. This prompts perhaps one of the most puzzling questions yet: Who owns that many flipping Camp shirts?? On the other side of the spectrum, maybe they only have a few of the shirts, so then… They are definitely doing laundry here…Are the girls doing their own laundry? (unlikely.) Or maybe this is why the Director and Assistant are never around to monitor them- they are stuck all day doing the girls’ laundry.

8. These kids are playing poker in their cabins?

In a normal Camp setting, there would be counselors in the cabins with the girls preventing stuff like this… Also, I can’t believe these girls’ go-to cabin activity was POKER. What happened to friendship bracelets??

9. These are some very financially savvy campers.

The girls keep money around to play poker with instead of immediately spending it on Camp apparel/gifts/accessories, or a ridiculous amount of candy.

10. Hallie and her two friends got themselves up for an early morning sports practice?

HAHAHAHA. Never in my life would I imagine 11 year olds actually being able to follow a Camp schedule and get themselves from place to place, much less actually get themselves UP in the morning without a counselor singing obnoxious wake-up songs.

11. The Camp Director and Assistant really had no idea of the pranks that were going on until like Day 4 when it got so out of hand that an entire cabin was destroyed?

I’m not even going to question how they had access to all of the supplies they used…

12. I’m sorry, but those are very unrealistic pranks.

No trio of 11 year olds would be able to pull off pranks like these without the help of counselors.

13. The fact that they have an isolation cabin proves to me that these two women are in no way capable of running a Camp by themselves.

I would never assume that the best form of discipline for two trouble making girls is to give them their own unsupervised space to wreck more havoc on.

14. How long are they supposed to stay in the Isolation Cabin?

Are they allowed to participate in any of the Camp activities? They aren’t really given any instructions, the Assistant Directory just sort of points to the cabin and off they go. In the real world, these 11 year olds would probably be a bit frightened. I sure as hell would have balled my eyes out and begged for a second chance. Instead, Annie and Hallie accept this as totally normal and presumably live on their own for the 3-4 (?) weeks remaining? Wouldn’t they get just a LITTLE bit upset about not seeing their other friends? Speaking of which, those other friends were also culprits in the pranks… Why do they not get punishment??

15. They apparently have free-range of the craft supplies judging from all of the collages, poster board displays, and diagrams in the cabin.

These two kids alone are probably costing their camp about $200 in craft supplies.

16. A kid is piercing another kids ears at Camp.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE DON’T SEND THEM TO THE ISOLATION CABIN.

17. Only when the BUSES ARE LOADING FOR THE KIDS TO GO HOME DO WE FINALLY SEE ANOTHER ADULT.

Glad to know that the kids aren’t driving themselves home.

18. The Camp Director and Assistant Director are wearing the Gap khaki collection for the entire summer?

This is not suitable attire for Camp staff mainly because it will get dirty instantly. Second, it doesn’t appear that those clothes can be layered well. But I could be wrong.