I did feel much better the morning after I wrote the middle-of-the-night fret post about Elizabeth being at camp. Part of it was that it was morning, and morning is just better. Most of it, though, was the comments on that post, which I started reading as soon as I was up, and have kept reading since. If I make a scale of what would be most comforting while Elizabeth is at camp, and let’s say we put “Letters from her saying she’s having a wonderful time and whining to stay a second week” as a 10 on that scale, the comments were…well, that’s actually harder than I’d expected to put a number on. Let’s call their place on the scale “Surprisingly close to 10.” I had Welling Tears of Relief.
AND, then on the second night, when all the sad thoughts returned, I had AMMUNITION. I was still picturing bad stuff happening, but then each thing I imagined led naturally to remembering one or more of the comments: I’d think for the hundredth time that maybe her stuff all got rained on, and then I’d remember one comment about how the counselors would put stuff in the dryers, and another comment about how the year everything got soaked was the best year ever, and another comment about how the counselors really are completely equipped to handle all normal camp problems, AND SO ON. Very, very helpful, and I thank you very much.
I am hoping today that there will be the letter saying she’s having a wonderful time and whining to stay a second week. But even if there isn’t, or even if the letter in fact says she’s miserable and cold and hungry, the week is half over. Well, sort of half over. Whoever thought of putting an odd number of days in a week was wrong.
My daughter will be going to Girl Scout camp next week. She’s 11, but this is her first time going without me (I’m a troop leader). She’ll undoubtedly have the time of her life, but I’m stressing about it too. The reassuring comments will hopefully get me through the week!
I have used your posts and comments from your readers as ammunition against my own fretting/anxiety SO many times. I’m glad the camp comments were helpful for you this time! (They were also really fun to read.)
Somehow I missed the original post, and I have never Sent anyone to camp, but I went to sleep away camp three times and I still consider those weeks some of the highlights of my entire life. Seriously. There were bugs and rain and wet jeans and I even got sick and BARFED! At one and it did not matter because it was SO MUCH FUN. Truly, best times of my life.
I had a friend in middle school that went to camp each summer. She LOVED it. It sounds similar to all the comments from before “Something went wrong but it was the best time EVER.”
I bet she’s having a great time. Imagine she’s surrounded by girls instead of those doggone bothersome BROTHERS! :)
I was 10 when I begged to go to week long Girl Guide Camp for the first time. As my dad dropped me off and made moves to leave, I started bawling. Even though I was having fun and I really wanted to be there, I was homesick the first few days. My 3 bunkmates told me at the end of the week they didn’t think I would make it through the week. At some point I discovered a phone and started calling home collect. Then the adult leaders caught me and explained it was only be be used if I broke “both my legs” (emergency use only). I remember sitting on someone’s lap sobbing; I was so worried that my parents would be worried because I said that I would call them again. It’s a very vivid memory and I distinctly remember feeling way too old to be sitting on someone’s lap crying, but I was overcome with emotion. Only 6 years later, I traveled with a team to Morocco and was one of the few who did not get homesick – I had already been through that! (And sitting one someone’s lap crying at 16 is really embarrassing!). The morale of the story is this: I did have fun in the end and since then I became quite adventurous as a teen and adult. I think these are very important learning experience for people on their way to becoming independent and resilient young women.
I missed your original post, but my daughter (just turned 10) went to sleep away camp for the first time two weeks ago. I never went to a campt like that, so I didnt know what to expect either. Even though it had been her vehement idea to go, when we left she was quite weepy and it was so hard to get in the car and drive away. Then I had such a hard time the first few days because even though I normally have no problem leaving my children for a business trip, them visiting their nana, etc., I could not get over having NO CONTACT with her at all. I was beside myself. I kept mailing her little things and emailing her on the one-way email system and making her little brothers draw her pictures to try and ease the anxiety. Then I talked to a friend who has seven children and sent several to camp last summer. She told me she had been heartbroken the first few days and described it as “feeling like I’d been dumped.” Then a mom of a friend who I do not know well, but had also sent her child to cam, emailed for suppot because she too was a wreck. I felt SO MUCH BETTER realizing that I wasn’t crazy to feel this way. Then the letters started coming telling us that she was having SO MUCH FUN! She was making lots of new friends and had detailed stories about all the activities. She loved all the junk I was mailing and had left for her. Even the few things she had been worried about, like the food and the bathroom situtation, were mostly fine! Now that she is home, she can’t wait for a second week in late July. So please, know you are not alone, know that no call from the camp means it is all basically okay, and Godspeed till pick-up time!
I hope you get a letter soon. I bet she’s having a great time!
Don’t count on a letter. The one year that we got a letter from our daughter, it arrived as we were walking out to the car to go pick her up. This year, I got a postcard from her counselor — it was waiting in the mailbox when we our girl arrived at home. Trust that she is having fun!
You were right: NO LETTER!
That means she is having a good time!
Swistle – I can’t wait for the update on how the camp experience went! I hope she had a fantastic time and is already begging for more camp next year.
I stayed up way too late the other night reading all the comments from the ‘fretting’ post. So many good stories.
Is today the day you get to pick E up? Hope she had the most amazing time ever. I went to day camp when I was her age and I absolutely adored it and was SO JEALOUS of all of the kids who were allowed to do the overnight camp. I am sure it was just like the babysitters club super special, camping edition :)
Tomorrow! I can’t wait!
Aw! I was hoping you’d get a letter today, but you see her tomorrow now, so that works too. :) ‘Hope she had a great time, Swistle.
WE EXPECT A FULL REPORT.
I love the internet. All week at various random times I’ll think “I wonder how Swistle is doing? What’s Elizabeth doing? I bet she’s having so much fun.”
I don’t even know you people!!! But I adore you, Ms. Swistle, and your kids too. In a totally non stalker-y way.
I hope your fretting has stayed at manageable levels, that Elizabeth is filthy (in an good way) and full of stories of all the fun she had, and that we get to read the updates soon.