Camp – Day 1

The kids went off to camp today. Here’s how Mark and I drowned our sorrows.

It was pretty tough. Mark asked me if there were tears. I said there were a few, but I managed to wipe mine away in the parking lot and attribute it to dirt in my eyes. Not that anyone asked. I didn’t know anyone there. I was talking to myself. As usual.

The kids made it relatively easy to leave them today. This morning I asked Zack to put away the clothes on his floor. He made several attempts, in order to get a promised home-made cinnamon bun. Given how amazing these buns are (really!) you’d think he’d have cleaned up the clothes in no time.

But no, it took 4 attempts. And then I had to call him out for dumping his clean, folded clothes back into the dirty hamper so he wouldn’t have to put them in the drawer. His excuse? They had fallen out of the clean bucket and he didn’t remember which were clean. Even though they were still folded in the hamper. And he blamed his father for putting his Cub Scout shirt and scarf in the dirty bin, even though it had been on the floor previously. Go figure. I wasn’t too pleased about that.

Then we decided to play 3 person Settlers of Catan. But Zack wasn’t winning and someone (his sister) kept soldiering him and so he stomped off and refused to finish the game. At that point I almost drove him early to the bus.

Don’t give me the psycho-babble that this was his way of distancing himself from us by trying to cause a diversion so he didn’t have deal with his feelings of leaving. Yeah, that may be what happens for some kids. But he pulls this shit all the time.

Here are the kids and the bus that will take them to camp. Zack just about got on without saying goodbye, even though he was no longer mad at me for soldiering him…once. And making him clean up his floor. I had to call him back for a hug and kiss…and to remind him to put on sunblock, put on bug spray, write to us by snail mail and email, not to forget to eat his fiber bars and take Miralax, and not to get in any fights. Then again,maybe that’s why he got on the bus without saying goodbye.

Dori wanted to bring an enormous stuffed animal or two on the bus. I said no, because I’m really mean and because I didn’t want the animal to get lost or dirty. Plus, how many middle school girls would be bringing large stuffed animals on the bus?

Uh…