Boxer has had a grand time this summer, up until we were Evil and sent him to outdoor camp at the YMCA. He spent most of June at camp at the daycare where Bloomer goes (his old daycare, too), and then two weeks at swim camp at the YMCA. This week he's in Outdoor Y camp at the lake near our house, with swimming and outdoor play and hiking! Next week is an abbreviated week back at the daycare camp.
This week... well. He's not been having a good week. He claims that "kids" took the ball from him. He lost his towel. They haven't gone in hikes. When they do hike, it's too far. His toe hurts.
Toe hurting seems to be the default complaint from both kids when something is bothering them they can't articulate. Part of the problem is that his camp comes off the high of swim camp, which is his absolute favorite thing ever. Another part of the problem that I didn't anticipate was that moving him around to different camps makes it hard for him to make/keep friends. The other part that is coming to light is that when one is the new kid in camp, you are at the bottom of the totem pole. And in this camp, as I told Brief on Tuesday night, he is,not The Shit.
On one hand, he does need to learn that he is not The Shit all the time in Real Life. He's got a great spirit and sense of self and has always gotten high marks for Self Confidence on his report cards. But he ain't The Shit. On the other hand... he's only six. I remember thinking I was The Shit up through fifth grade. Let us not speak of middle school, but just know I finally recovered sometime in college.
Anyway, the camp is for the full week, but my MIL has asked if the kids could go to Six Flags tomorrow. When we asked Boxer if he would rather do that than go to camp, he was all over it. This morning before breakfast he asked me how many minutes until we picked him up from camp today. And then I picked up the pieces from my heart shattering all over the carpet.
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3 comments:
Awwwww. J.T. feels that way about our after school program, even though his BFF attends. He asks every day when he will be a car rider again. :(
I'd rather go to Six Flags too!
I had a rough time in various camps, too. It's okay.
Won't "evil parents" be a category, not only a title? My mother has a dance and a song entitled "Mean Mama". I've just listened to Dr. Ben Carson's book "Risk" and he says his mother, when he and his brother would try to get unlikely parental action by whining, etc, would wrinkle her brow quizzically and ask, "Do you have a brain?" which of course was a challenge to "solve your own problem by thinking about it." (I recc the book highly - Carson is an amazing success story, and an inspiring worker.)
Oh, by "it's okay", I mean that I surely wouldn't want to deprive my child of the memorable and useful experience of "having a rough time at camp". It's also memorable and useful to "have a great time at camp", but obviously useful for different things, and less so generally, I think.
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