Hey Camp Fans!

For today’s Throwback Thursday Blog post, we’re linking back to a post from nearly a year ago on June 12, written by Dr. Thurber about enjoying opening day at camp when you drop your kid off.

This post offers good pointers about savoring the moment of dropping your kid off at camp instead of worrying about getting it on video. The reason behind recording a video is to get it all on ‘tape’ so you’ll remember it forever. But really this just separates you from the moment. You won’t remember dropping your kid off at camp, you’ll remember peering through a video camera when you dropped your kid off at camp.

- John

Hey, Camp Preppers!

As anticipating parents, there’s so much you can do to help prevent your kid’s homesickness or even camp-related-anxiety prior to it. It can be a lot to keep in mind, but at the same time it all boils down to the same thing—painting camp in a positive light.

Last week we talked about preventing homesickness by keeping any doubts you may have as parents out of your kid’s head. Another simple key to preventing homesickness is not making the mistake of promising an early pickup. 

If your kids are voicing their concerns over their upcoming camp stay, it’s often the easiest answer to tell them that if they feel TOO homesick you’ll come back early to pick them up and take them home. Most first-time campers get a bit of a cold feet feeling as their camp stay approaches and this scenario happens more than you might think.

Lots of parents promise an early pickup and think that they handled the situation well but what they fail to realize is that in promising an early pickup, they’ve planted a seed in their camper’s head. That seed is the idea that even YOU—the camper’s parents—are not filled with absolute confidence about how the camp stay will go.

Kids typically have their own doubts. They certainly don’t need to hear a doubt from you. No matter what form it may be in (such as this seemingly helpful one), it will only have a negative effect. What you need to give kids is a positive reinforcement that they will inevitably have a GOOD TIME at summer camp and that there’s simply nothing to worry about.

Should your child pop the question to you, pointblank: “Will you come get me if I don’t like camp?” your best response is to address their concerns head-on. Say something like “Well, YOU may be worried about it by I really think you’ll love it at camp! Most kids get concerned about their camp stay, but in the end the fun overwhelms any feelings of being homesick.”

It’s also good to keep in mind that having feelings of homesickness is completely normal; we feel them because we miss the things that we love about our lives back home, teaching us to live without them.

Thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Continuing our weekly visit back to the subject of homesickness, I have another excellent piece of advice for all of you anticipating parents: Keep your doubts to yourself. Whatever worries you might have about how your kid’s summer camp stay will go—those thoughts don’t need to be a part of your kid’s world.

In fact, it’s those kinds of thoughts and helpless concerning that produces homesickness. Showing your concerns about your kid’s time away at camp only plants the concept in your kid’s head that camp is something they need to ‘get through’ as opposed to something they can actually ENJOY!

It shouldn’t come as any surprise to learn that worry can be contagious. You’ve seen it happen plenty of times with kids of your own. Maybe you can even remember experiencing it when you were a kid. Psychological research in the late 90’s dubbed it ‘anxiety transmission’. The most common form of anxiety transmission starts with parents and gets passed on to the kid.

It’s very common for kids to suffer anxiety transmission about their school life and the same holds true for summer camp.

Anything even remotely close to a concern is something that your kid should never hear. All they should hear as the summer camp season approaches is how excited they should be and how excited you are for them. Tell them how much they’ll love camp and how you look forward to hearing about all the new experiences they’ll have had.

Now before I go on, let me just say that it’s pretty much impossible for a parent not to worry over their kid’s time away from home. You have to worry! You’re a parent! Just because you have the concern doesn’t mean your kid needs to know about it.

And just because you can’t share your worries with your kid doesn’t mean you need to bottle your feelings up and carry the weight alone. You can confide in your spouse or friend, colleague—anyone who’ll understand your concerns.

Letting your worries be heard by the right person can often leave you feeling calmer for it too which is definitely an emotion you can share with your kid! Thanks for reading!

- John

Hey Camp Fans!

For today’s Throwback Thursday Blog post, we’re linking back to last year’s post from May 15, written by Dr. Thurber about how a relaxed parent begets a relaxed camper.

This post offers great advice about shaping a positive outlook for your kid in anticipation for his or her camp stay. Kids look to their parents for everything so it’s important that you don’t show any potential worries or fears you might have concerning your kid’s camp stay. Check out the May 15 post and make sure to RELAX!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

For most kids, summer camp is the experience of their lifetime. I know I can still remember my summer camp stay even though it happened forever ago. And the reason it’s so fresh in my memory is because of the impact it had on my life. One of my first experiences being away from home, it was more than just loads of fun, it was a growing experience.

However, the same reason that makes summer camp so much fun can also present challenges like homesickness. Pretty much every camper (especially every first-time camper) is going to experience some degree of homesickness. Cases of extreme homesickness are rather rare, but even so, there are things you can do to help reduce the potential of how homesick your kid feels during his or her camp stay.

Last week I talked about lessening your child’s homesickness by picking the right length of camp stay for them. But another way to ease any potential homesick feelings at camp is to set up times for your kid to spend away from home before their camp stay to help them get used to the feeling of not having mom and dad around.

This can be done easily by arranging a weekend for your kid to stay with Grandma and Grandpa or at a friend’s house. Even just a single-night sleepover or slumber party is valuable in helping acclimate your kid to being away from home. The more acclimated your kid is, the less homesick they should feel at camp.

You should use these sleepovers and weekend trips as practice runs not just for your kid, but for yourself as well. You won’t be able to call your kid on a whim when they’re at camp so don’t call them when they’re off on these short visits. If your kid is away long enough you might even want to write them a letter since this is how you’ll keep in touch come time for their camp stay.

When your kid gets back from their arranged time away be sure to talk to them about how their trip went.

Ask them about things that they would have done differently if they could have. Ask them about things that they wish had gone differently that they wouldn’t have been able to change anyway (such as the weather). Though there’s nothing you can do directly about such a situation, simply making your kid aware of the fact that unfavorable weather is a possibility can help them to cope with the idea of the things outside of their control.

Talk to them directly about homesickness as well. Make sure they understand that it’s normal to miss being home, but that they should try and focus on having a good time instead of missing home. It’s this act alone that diffuses most cases of homesickness.

As always, thanks for reading!

- John