*** Originally posted on Chicago Mom's Blog ***
It's taken me a little time to pull myself together and decide to write about my 3 year old's first day camp experience. I can be unreasonable and angry which tends to throw my judgment completely off, but now that it's been a couple of days I think I can write this with a clear head. My 3 year old attended a nearby preschool and enjoyed it very much; my husband and I love, love his preschool teachers and think that they do an excellent job. I need to say this because the day camp that I signed my son up for is run by the same place as the preschool and I want to make it perfectly clear that it is NOT my son's preschool teachers that I am upset with - nor am I upset with the person who is in charge of running the day camp.
So the story goes like this: my son missed the first day of day camp and my husband dropped him off on the second day. The room that the campers were in was the exact room that my son had preschool in and there is only ONE door that you can enter and exit from. David, my husband, saw that my oldest son was settled into a game of cars with another child, scooped up my youngest son, and walked out the door. The door leads to a large lobby and then to TWO sets of double doors. David walked through the lobby and through the first set of double doors. When he turned around to push the second set of double doors open and the first set of double doors closed, he realized that my oldest son was in the lobby by the first set of double doors and that they had closed in front of him.
There was no camp counselor to be found trailing my oldest son as he sat there in the lobby of the building staring at my husband and my husband staring back at him in disbelief. You can imagine the rest as my husband took my oldest son to the front desk, asked for the day camp director, and then proceeded to explain what just happened. I thank God that it was my husband who was there to deal with it because my head would have exploded and the ground would have swallowed up the entire building if that happened to me.
To her credit, the director handled it exactly as I would have expected and she handled it well. When I was told what happened - on the way home from work on the train 8 hours later - I called the director and spoke to her. I explained that I would be taking my son out of the day camp and I expected a full refund which she agreed to and completely understood. Am I upset at the camp director? No, but I am upset that they decided to staff a toddler day camp with (or at least my son's section of the camp) with 18, 19, and 20 year olds. But I am even MORE upset at myself because I attended a meeting where I met the counselors and my initial reaction was to pull my son out of the camp because I didn't think that they were responsible enough, but I second guessed myself.
I swear that I will never second guess myself when it comes to my sons again. I agree that I am over-protective, but these camp counselors are the ones that would have been taking my son to a field trip to a local water park which I realize now could have had a disasterous outcome. I remember being 20 and I was actually responsible, but I was in no way responsible enough to handle a group of 5 toddlers. On the plus side, I am sure that procedures have changed for the good at the day camp after the episode with my son, but I'm not about to risk his safety with people I don't trust. I will never go against my gut again when it comes to my sons.
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