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This is just a rambling post about taking my kiddos to camp...
Ds9 is at sleepaway camp. I dropped him off today. How scary is that? He's so very shy. I hope he has a great time. Big sister (dd17) is working on staff at the camp this summer (part of a summer intern program for teens-- she doesn't get paid this year but maybe in the future she can...). So she will be there, and Ds's cousin (a girl) is there too--- but in the girl side of the camp. I'm hoping he'll have a great time... Or at least not a terrible time... First time he's really been away from me. This is a real challenge, and no way would I even consider sleepaway camp for him except that big sister is there. She tells me that she really likes the assistant counselor he's with (there are 3 counselors)... I worry that he'll have a terrible time though. He doesn't make friends easily, and he's very self-conscious. He has tourettes, and on the (14 hour long) car drive here the kids played the video "I have Tourette's but Tourette's doesn't have me" (HBO documentary) and it was the first time I'd heard it (I need to watch it) and I was just crying as I was driving along. The way these kids feel so different and bullied from their peers is just heartbreaking... And to see ds9 (when I looked back in the rear view mirror AKA the kid-checking-mirror) so engrossed in the film and relating so much to what the kids said... I just knew that he feels this way too. So going to a camp with people who don't know him is really out there and scary. One of the kids on the documentary was talking about going to his own camp too-- so that was interesting. At this point I just hope for the best for ds. He's at camp now...
So...
Next week Ds11 and Dd11 go to the same camp (but for the middle school session). I'm actually more worried about this one. This is the first non-diabetes camp for my son. He also has an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts. And this is not a nut-free camp (candy is available at the camp store, peanut butter is offered at meals...) and it's not a heavily staffed medical camp. He's been to 2 diabetes camps, and they all were staffed by doctors and nurses, and most of the counselors were type 1 diabetics as well. Education about diabetes is a big part of diabetes camp, and they take lots of breaks for scheduled blood sugar checks. I spoke with a nurse today when I was dropping off ds9 about diabetes and what they do for diabetics. She gave me pretty much a blank stare... So I'm kind of worried about it. I'm going to make a plan, and bring it with me. I'm going to also have Ds carry his own epi because I just don't think that it's reasonable to have him go all the way to the camp nurse station for an epi, even though they "prefer" all meds to be in the nurse's station. He has to carry blood glucose supplies with him all the time, so he's carrying an epi too.
Stressful. I thought sending our kids off to camp was supposed to be liberating for us parents? What WILL I do with my free time...
Anyway, I don't really have a question, and it's not really a rant, just sort of an update of sorts. I guess I expected that after 2 diabetes camps (and those suckers are ridiculously expensive-- three times the going rate for normal sleepaway camps) that Ds11 would be able to do any camp and manage his diabetes fairly independently. But I'm just not so sure. I think for my own sanity I'll stick with diabetes camps for him in the future. This is a camp that's sort of a rite of passage in our family... I went there as a little girl, my dd17 has gone almost every year since the summer before 2nd grade, and my parents are very involved with the board of the camp... Dh even has been there as a counselor in an outreach camp and also as a "camper" for the "father daughter" camp he went to when our oldest was 7 years old. The camp only 45 minutes away from my parent's house (where I'm staying)... I'm thinking of being "that mom" who has the nurse call me every night with DS11's BG numbers so that I can track them. I just think that might be the way to go here...
Conflicted much? Parenting is just not very simple, is it?
Ds9 is at sleepaway camp. I dropped him off today. How scary is that? He's so very shy. I hope he has a great time. Big sister (dd17) is working on staff at the camp this summer (part of a summer intern program for teens-- she doesn't get paid this year but maybe in the future she can...). So she will be there, and Ds's cousin (a girl) is there too--- but in the girl side of the camp. I'm hoping he'll have a great time... Or at least not a terrible time... First time he's really been away from me. This is a real challenge, and no way would I even consider sleepaway camp for him except that big sister is there. She tells me that she really likes the assistant counselor he's with (there are 3 counselors)... I worry that he'll have a terrible time though. He doesn't make friends easily, and he's very self-conscious. He has tourettes, and on the (14 hour long) car drive here the kids played the video "I have Tourette's but Tourette's doesn't have me" (HBO documentary) and it was the first time I'd heard it (I need to watch it) and I was just crying as I was driving along. The way these kids feel so different and bullied from their peers is just heartbreaking... And to see ds9 (when I looked back in the rear view mirror AKA the kid-checking-mirror) so engrossed in the film and relating so much to what the kids said... I just knew that he feels this way too. So going to a camp with people who don't know him is really out there and scary. One of the kids on the documentary was talking about going to his own camp too-- so that was interesting. At this point I just hope for the best for ds. He's at camp now...
So...
Next week Ds11 and Dd11 go to the same camp (but for the middle school session). I'm actually more worried about this one. This is the first non-diabetes camp for my son. He also has an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts. And this is not a nut-free camp (candy is available at the camp store, peanut butter is offered at meals...) and it's not a heavily staffed medical camp. He's been to 2 diabetes camps, and they all were staffed by doctors and nurses, and most of the counselors were type 1 diabetics as well. Education about diabetes is a big part of diabetes camp, and they take lots of breaks for scheduled blood sugar checks. I spoke with a nurse today when I was dropping off ds9 about diabetes and what they do for diabetics. She gave me pretty much a blank stare... So I'm kind of worried about it. I'm going to make a plan, and bring it with me. I'm going to also have Ds carry his own epi because I just don't think that it's reasonable to have him go all the way to the camp nurse station for an epi, even though they "prefer" all meds to be in the nurse's station. He has to carry blood glucose supplies with him all the time, so he's carrying an epi too.
Stressful. I thought sending our kids off to camp was supposed to be liberating for us parents? What WILL I do with my free time...
Anyway, I don't really have a question, and it's not really a rant, just sort of an update of sorts. I guess I expected that after 2 diabetes camps (and those suckers are ridiculously expensive-- three times the going rate for normal sleepaway camps) that Ds11 would be able to do any camp and manage his diabetes fairly independently. But I'm just not so sure. I think for my own sanity I'll stick with diabetes camps for him in the future. This is a camp that's sort of a rite of passage in our family... I went there as a little girl, my dd17 has gone almost every year since the summer before 2nd grade, and my parents are very involved with the board of the camp... Dh even has been there as a counselor in an outreach camp and also as a "camper" for the "father daughter" camp he went to when our oldest was 7 years old. The camp only 45 minutes away from my parent's house (where I'm staying)... I'm thinking of being "that mom" who has the nurse call me every night with DS11's BG numbers so that I can track them. I just think that might be the way to go here...
Conflicted much? Parenting is just not very simple, is it?
If all your kids are at the same camp, they have someone to reach out to if something is going wrong. Hugs. Again, I am hoping all these fears will be for nothing and they all come home happy.
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