I intentionally left some unfinished tasks last week so I could stay busy this week.
I probably should not have left quite so many tasks since I forgot to leave a little consideration for "Murphy's Law" of "If anything can go wrong, it will". Not a big deal....most were really something of an inconvenience or minor challenge. And the silver lining in the cloud here is that the days have been going by very quickly.
Drew's words for Day Camp is simply "Awesome". I am so glad he is enjoying his experience. It's so nice to have him playing with other kids. There was one minor occurrence yesterday though. Drew's rendition of "Murphy's Law" in action".
He was ready to catch the 7:45AM bus to Day Camp at the middle school parking lot with his backpack of all the necessary items strapped to his back. Swimming trunks and towel, jeans and long sleeve shirt, boots for pony riding, bug spray and lunch. All set! Check in with the counselor standing by the bus and sign the sheet, brief hug, check in with the counselor on the bus, stow the backpack under the seat, buckle the seat belt and off they go. I understand they make one more pickup before they reach their final destination at the camp.
The day flew by and there I was, back at the middle school parking lot at 5:30PM to pick up the happy camper. Before he is allowed off the bus, I have to show ID and sign the sheet again. Security is very tight but I really do appreciate this. When I sign the sheet, The counselor will hand me a "report" that tells me what he did that day, how he felt that day (very cute way of reporting this with emoticons that are circled to express "Happy, Silly, Sad, Tired, Mischievous, Excited, Frustrated, Worried, Sick or Feisty") and some space for "additional information".
The counselor was quick to explain that Drew had forgotten his backpack on the bus that morning. Ah, yes. Drew and his seven year old boy attention span of approximately 7 minutes unless it's something that he's really interested in and then it's about 30 minutes. I think I actually read that young children's attention span on average is about a minute for each year of their age. Drew can live up to this claim at times...
He hops off the bus at camp and realizes about a minute after the bus has left that his backpack was still on the bus! Panic! He told the counselor about his dilemma and they called the bus company to report that there was a backpack left on the bus. He got a little tearful when they went to the pool for their swim session and there he was with no swimming trunks. Not to worry! They came up with a pair of clean trunks and a towel for him. Problem solved! Lunch time came and he has no lunch.The staff came up with a sandwich and chips for him! Problem solved (even if he did have to remove the tomato slices from the sandwich)! Pony riding session came along in the afternoon and no boots! Extra boots are available and he got to wear a pair of "snakeskin" boots that he thought were really cool (but he was sure that I would not have even wanted to touch them since I am not a fan of snakes and he knows it!). I thank the camp staff for all their help at getting him through the little trials of the day.
Sometime during the day, the bus company called back to tell the camp staff that there was no backpack left on the bus. So, Drew got this news and he worried. He knew he had his backpack on the bus! The staff then told him that he had probably thought he had his backpack on the bus but he had probably left it at home or in my minivan. Under the "additional information" section of the daily camp report I received at pick up was the brief phrase "Drew forgot his backpack today. We fed him, however, please make sure he has it. Otherwise, he was wonderful today. Very happy. Before we went to the pool, Drew started to cry because of forgetting his backpack" The Happy, Silly, Sad and Excited emoticons were circled.
The counselor was trying to rapidly explain that Drew got through the day just fine and the camp staff had called the bus company and the bus company had said there was no backpack left on the bus and when he boarded the bus at the end of the day, what should be under his seat? His backpack! Oh my! Thank goodness this is just a backpack and not a small child that fell asleep on the school bus that you hear about on the news! I thanked the counselor, gathered my grandson and his backpack and we climbed into the minivan for our trek home. While crossing the parking lot, Drew was mumbling "they didn't believe me". When we were driving home, we had a talk about what happened.
It was interesting to find out that while he was distressed that he forgot his backpack, his bigger cause of distress was the fact that the counselors did not believe him when he knew and had insisted that he had it on the bus. He had reluctantly agreed with them that it must have been left in the mini van or at home.
Hmmmm. Lesson learned for Drew. This incident caused some inconveniences that were remedied with the help of the camp staff (thank you again camp staff!). I'll bet he does better at tracking his backpack to avoid these types of inconveniences in the future! See Drew...there are people that will help you if you just ask for help when you need it.
Lesson learned for Mai. Listen carefully to what the young ones are saying. The missing backpack was a minor issue. Not as minor an issue is that Drew's faith in his counselors declined a little today because they wouldn't believe him. I think it may have been better if the staff left the focus on getting him through the day without all his things in his backpack. I don't believe they were trying to intentionally drive a point home to him by telling him that "he must have left it in the mini van or at home because the bus company said there was no backpack left on the bus" but I don't think it was a necessary for them to voice this conclusion to him. Maybe just a "Your backpack seems to be temporarily AWOL! Don't worry! We have a solution!" would have sufficed. And perhaps a call to me to let me know that Drew came to camp sans backpack?
Kids will be kids. It's just a backpack that was left on a bus because of a little over exuberance about getting to camp and some carelessness of a seven year old. But what if he were trying to tell a grown up that he was being bullied or worse. What if he were told that he must be wrong because the people he claims are bullying him said that they were not bullying him? What if he decides it's not worth telling someone about a situation because they "wouldn't believe me".
As one of the adults in my young grandson's life, I must be very careful to listen and not assume a conclusion too easily. I could have said the same things that the counselors told Drew. I am not immune to this pitfall. While a child can be unintentionally or intentionally wrong, I think that adults may be guiltier of this more than we realize.
When he was off to camp this morning, he was clutching his backpack as if it were his life. He also felt the need to remind me at least ten times that "this is Wednesday which means it's our day to deliver meals to the elderly. Don't forget to get the meals and deliver them Mai.". Thanks for the tenth reminder Drew! Meals got delivered and everyone wanted to know where you were. And by the way Drew, thanks for the lesson. It was a good one.
It was a good lesson. I think we are guilty of not really listening sometimes and in not believing!
ReplyDelete