No gingerbread houses for you

[keelywolfe]

My son has been to camp before. Last year he went to day camp and had a wonderful time so this year we decided he was ready for the full experience. He'll be at camp all day, all night for the whole week.

Now, this morning before we dropped him off, i got up at the usual time and found my son curled up on the sofa, weeping.

My first reaction to this is, as always, "Where are you bleeding??" It turns out that there was no blood or injury involved. Instead, he had decided he didn't want to go to camp and nothing I said would convince him otherwise. He Was Not Going. Oh, his reasons why were numerous. He would miss me too much, there were too many animals in the woods, he didn't like bugs. On and on.

I finally convinced him that if he went today and really, truly, hated it that much, I would come get him. I wouldn't leave him there to suffer, I would take him home.

What did he say to me as he sniffled back tears? "How will you know to get me?"

A counselor would tell me, of course. I figured that was obvious. Well, apparently it isn't. My son did not realize that there would be adults at the camp looking after him! I guess he just figured we'd throw him out of the car to live off the land for a week on his own and eventually, we might come find him again, if we felt like it. He was terrified because he thought he would be by himself for a week!!

After explaining he would be staying in a cabin, with two teenage counselors and a bunch of other kids, he was eager to go. But it's nice to see how much faith my kid has in me, that he really thought we were abandoning him in the woods. *G*

Hey, Hansel, don't forget your breadcrumbs, kid!

Comments

[cupidandpsycho.livejournal.com]

OMG that is just priceless! Sad and funny all at the same time. I hope he has a wonderful time!

[zortified.livejournal.com]

You just know that when the week is up he won't want to go home. ;-)

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

See, my daughter had day camp today and she burst in to tears when we came to pick her up. All in all, it was a very damp day.

[zortified.livejournal.com]

Wow, I bet you feel like the Best Parent Ever! ;-)

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

He was so excited by the time we got there he barely told me goodbye so I suspect he'll have fun. :)

[zortified.livejournal.com]

You should totally give him a bag of bread and explain what the crumbs are for when you drop him off. ;-)

(This is totally why I will never be a parent! Also, I would laugh at my teenager when s/he was being emo and overly-melodramatic!)

[damoyre.livejournal.com]

I wish there was a "like" option in lj, like there's on facebook. I would totally LIKE this response. ;)

[zortified.livejournal.com]

I realised I would sign my child up for a week long camp at the end of the month, and do the whole 'it's just for a week!' thing and then when I dropped him off I'd say "See you next month!" and make him cry.

;-)

[reginagiraffe]

You should get him a copy of I Want to Go Home as a 'welcome home' present! *g*

Poor kid!

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I own the book already, always a huge Gordan Korman fan. I should let him read it when he gets home. *G*

[reginagiraffe]

The more I think about it, the more I think that reading it *after* camp is the way to go.

Wouldn't want him to get any ideas... *g*

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

That is one of the best things I've read on LJ in a long time.

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I guess the kid thought he'd be fighting with dogs for food or something. Doesn't speak well for my parenting skills. *G*

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

Don't read The Hunger Games to him for a few years; he might get a complex!

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

Oh, the ideas kids get in their little noggins. They have such a different view of the world than we do, and sometimes, the results are unintentionally hilarious.

Um, I vote for zortified's idea of a bag of bread crumbs, because I'm totally ebil like that to my kids. Oh, and call him 'Hansel' when you give him the bread.

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I was just staggered that this kid I raised and took care of really believed we were dumping him off in the woods. Honestly, doesn't he know how much time and money we have invested in him! There is no way I am starting from scratch now. ;)

We teased him all day about it, because we are that kind of evil, too. *G*

[bluetaelon.livejournal.com]

Poor kid! I take it he went to a different camp last time so he didn't get to talk to the overnight campers and find out how fun it is? I hope he has a great time at camp and you don't get a call tomorrow other then to say "Having an awesome time mom!":)

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

Same camp but the day camp and the overnight camp are on opposite sides of the lake. I'm sure he'll have a blast, his counselors were very nice.

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

It's astounding the things we assume other people know about a subject - especially kids. Somewhere along the line, after all the t.v. shows or movies or whatever that he'd seen, the concept of 'counselor' just never clicked. I was just a (vital) missing bit of info that you would never ASSUME was missing.

Either that or he's been watching too many shows where the kids ARE just dumped in the woods on their own... and he somehow conflated that with the idea of 'camp' :)

Poor guy. Glad you got the misunderstanding sorted. :)

[darkflame173.livejournal.com]

Eh Oh El XD

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but this made me laugh. Oh, to be a mom. Here's your purple heart.

BTW: how old is your son again?

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

He's eight. Not quite old enough to know I wouldn't leave him alone in the woods, it would seem.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I had something similar happen to my son at DisneyWorld when he was six and a half. We arrived too early for our hotel room so went straight to the park. Spent all afternoon and evening and when the fireworks ended, he thought we were going home. Like, home- home --- back on the plane.

He burst into tears and cried uncontrollably and I remember sitting on the curb on Main Street, consoling him and trying to explain what a hotel was. Finally, he trusted me enough to leave the park and came with me to the Polynesian Hotel.

Then he realized what it meant.

But every night, he asked, "We go back to the hotel?" And I would say yes, until the last day I couldn't. But I had to promise we'd come back next year. And we did.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

My son did not realize that there would be adults at the camp looking after him! I guess he just figured we'd throw him out of the car to live off the land for a week on his own and eventually, we might come find him again, if we felt like it. He was terrified because he thought he would be by himself for a week!!

*chuckle* Poor kiddo! I hope he has a fabulous time. I always loved camp as a kid.

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

So did I. I went every summer for years. My husband never did and I swear, he was jealous of the kid. *G*

[starfish422.livejournal.com]

Oh dear heck! Poor guy - he must have been so stressed out. There's just no way to keep up to the way kids' minds work, frealz. :)

[damoyre.livejournal.com]

Poor kid!!! I'm so glad he was more comfortable after you explained everything to him - and I hope he has a really good time at camp. :)

And you're much braver than I am. My daughter is 12, and she's away for the summer for the first time this year. (Ballet intensive with Bolshoi.) She's totally fine, but I've been freaking out for the past 8 days - since I left her there.

As for my son, who is now 10? No way. I'm so not ready to let him go, even though he begs and begs.

Maybe next year...

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

Brave? Maybe in front of him. I cried all the way home. *G* And it's only till Friday so it's really only 4 nights. I think if it was two weeks I wouldn't have been able to do it.

[shalom]

My son did not realize that there would be adults at the camp looking after him!

No, that would be the Lord of the Flies camp (not ACA approved) down the street. LOL


The first year my older son went to sleepaway camp at 10, it was Little League Baseball Camp. His biggest fear was having to use shower publicly, as the "cabins" are set up like locker rooms with bunk beds and communal showers. We solved the problem by telling him to wear his bathing suit in the shower. When he got there, every single kid did the same thing all week. lol

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

LOL! Kids are so hilarious. Xander didn't ask me about the showers and I didn't think about it! When I went to camp, the showers were little cubicles with curtains.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

OH! Oh no!!

I shouldn't laugh. Oh. Oh that's precious and just horrible all at the same time!

Oh dear. Parenting: not just a job, and adventure.

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I know! I was trying to soothe him and not laugh at the same time. Not an easy task. *G*

[jolinar-rosha.livejournal.com]

heeheehee - poor child! it's really weird how children's minds work sometimes, isn't it? :P

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I just couldn't believe it! We have to be careful about teasing him anyway, he takes everything so seriously!

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, that's the best story! Poor kid, thinking he'd be fending for himself for a week, eating tree bark and licking moisture off rocks. Sleeping in a pile of leaves.

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

I know! Part of me wanted to shake him and ask him what he was thinking! Are you crazy, kid??

But then again, I hadn't told him he would be staying with counselors, so hey, bad on me. *G*