The ten day postcard.
You can find lots of great articles on why camp is a great experience for a child, but it should really be recommended by marriage therapists. For a few summers, we sent our boys to two weeks at Camp Coniston in New Hampshire. During those two weeks, I learned the following:
I am a creative, thoughtful, calm person when not caught in the blender of parenting.
Even though I get my energy from people, I do enjoy a quiet house.
Grocery shopping is not a chore when you pop into the market to select items for one or two meals. Basically, pretending I am French.
Sleeping naked is enjoyable and decreases night sweats. It is hard to do this when the boys are home.
Sex cures a lot of issues.
You can take trips as a couple, but being home together navigating real life can also be a treat. Eating take-out on your coffee table while watching inappropriate t.v. brings you back to the early days.
It is nice to realize that our arguments stem from parenting and that we can still connect as a couple. This reminder always helped us stay on course for the year before they went back to camp.
Fast forward a few years to preparing to send our first-born off to college and I find myself comparing a lot to preparing for overnight camp. The packing list is similar, the clothes are only a little bigger. Tyler did not need a head-lamp, bug spray or self-addressed envelopes for college. Those items are replaced with a large bottle of Advil, a laptop, and a bundle of chargers. Packing for college is not stressful after Tyler’s overnight camp experience. Camp taught him to make new friends, adapt to new surroundings, and be independent. I do not worry over his adjustment to his college dorm, his two-week stay at Camp Coniston prepared him for this.
The first summer he went, I waited ten long days to hear from him. One of the rules of the camp is that they do not bring any electronics, and parents cannot email their children. I agree that this allows them to fully engage and decreases their chances of being homesick. Our family dynamic shifted with only having Mason at home, and I tried to adjust. We got one postcard at day ten, which I re-read a dozen times analyzing if he seemed happy by his use of exclamation points. When we picked him up after two weeks, he couldn’t contain his excitement as he shared his adventures and toured us around the campground. He returned the following summer with his brother, and they shared a few summer sessions together. While they learned a lot during the experience, I am grateful for how the experience has shaped our future. Thank you Camp Consiton for the prep work!
