Camp Mom Out

It took exactly twelve days for Ax to announce that having a camp-free summer was not as good as he thought it would be. Or rather, to let me know that he was complete with his camp-free experience and now was ready, for, camp.

It would have happened sooner if not for his beloved cousin’s visit and several heavily-scheduled extended play dates during the camp mom time.

What happened was, he was showing me a lego catalog with some programmable robot to build. I said, “There’s a camp that teaches how to use that.”

He said, “I don’t need to learn I already know.”

I said, “How can you know if you’ve never done it?”

And he pointed to the pictures of the buttons and gave a credible explanation for what each button did.

“Ok,” I said, “We can put it on your birthday wish list.”

But inside I was thinking of DOT, the last programmable robot we got which never gets used and will become landfill, ie: part of the problem, ie: part of what will kill my child and his children via climate crisis unless a radical solution is found, along with ...

Sorry, I promised no politics ever in this blog and yet I don’t understand how science and the planet have become political. 

But anyway, camp. So that catalog thing happened and then a few hours later I got sneaky and showed him his schedule for the following week. My mom, me, his dad, his favorite babysitter, hanging out, per his request.

“Maybe I would like to try that camp,” he said.

“Oh, okay,” I said. If you want to you can. That camp is not for next week though, would you like one for next week?

“Yes.”

And without showing too much relief and excitement he and I looked at some options, he got excited about a sports camp he’s done the past three years, and we booked it.

I’m so grateful I didn’t push back (too much) when he said he didn’t want to do camp this summer. I’m so grateful I didn’t do what so many people told me to do — enroll him and force him to go.

And I’m so grateful that we can afford to give our child these experiences — all of them, the leisure with family, the learning, playing, being a kid, today. 

It’s not how “it used to be” where kids could just roam and get together and be free. Where we live it’s schedules and pick-ups and drop-offs and supervision. So I’m doing that. I’m gonna keep going.

www.livingeveryminuteofit.com