As our camp’s Director my job is all about communication. To keep things running smoothly and safely I make a point to check in with our counselors and their campers as often as I can each day. I also talk with parents. A lot. One particularly gorgeous afternoon last summer, I was hiking to check on the next counselor’s group when I got an unexpected text from a mom. It said simply “I’m here to pick up my kids.” Early pickups are a routine thing; we just request a 20-minute heads up reminder so we can coordinate. We mark any planned early pickups at morning drop-off, and there wasn’t one on the sheet that day. The staff all confirmed that no one had been told about this one. So, as I doubled back along the trail to get her younger son from the group I’d just left, I phoned to let mom know we would be a few minutes. With some concern I added, “We weren’t expecting this pickup. Is everything okay?” “Oh,” she explained, “it’s just that they were uncomfortable at drop off, so I