I loved summer camp as a kid. Every summer I went to Camp Chetek, to a bible camp. (Yes. Me at a bible camp. HA!). I remember calling home and begging my Mom to let me stay another week, thinking I was SO lucky that she let me stay. Now I realize she probably hung up the phone and kicked back on the porch with an Old Milwaukee and celebrated another week without me….
I sent Cody to summer camp at Camp Wood when we lived in Kansas and he loved it. So, I decided that this summer Carsten should experience summer camp. I figured she was bound to love it too, right??
Wrong.
Carsten was horrified by the idea of summer camp.
She spent many days trying to convince me she really didn’t NEED to experience a summer camp, it was alright if I didn’t send her. She be juuuuust fine without a camp experience.
She finally admitted her two biggest reasons for not wanting to go to camp were: a) her dirty clothes would touch her clean clothes in her bag and b) she was afraid they would make her take a super short shower.
Wow.
So, I rolled my eyes, gave her a laundry bag and signed her up.
I drop her off tomorrow, so of course I put off packing until today. The camp provided a list of prohibited items, which could also double as a list of things Carsten needs to live.
I sat her down today and said….. “There’s going to be no cell phones, no iPods and no make up. So, no YouTube, no Skype, no minecraft. No mascara. No fancy outfits. It’s t-shirts and shorts and you’ll be wearing tennis shoes THE.ENTIRE.TIME.”
Then I braced myself for impact.
She said, “I know. It’s ok.”
Errrrrrr….. WHAT?
I’m pretty sure she’s reverse psychology’ing me right now and something crazy is going to happen when I drop her off tomorrow.
Smart Mouth 
I hope she loves it as much as I used to! Who needs mascara, anyway? I mean, hypothetically. I would never go anywhere without mine. But I like to pretend I’m the sort of girl who could happily go without it while roughing it for a week.
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Ok first, I am certain Carsten may be my child or at least somehow related to me. I HATED camp. I went to Girl Scout camp several times. At the time I didn’t realize how much of a sacrifice it was for my parents to send me and as such, I now feel like an ungrateful little snot for hating it so. I made friends and all, made stupid crafts, sang songs, went on daybreak pajama hikes (which.like, OMG the novelty of hiking in your pajamas…BFD!!!). I learned to eat ketchup on chips and peanut butter on pancakes. My thighs and hips never recovered from those.
Anyway I’m crossing my fingers that she enjoys it, it teaches her some things about life, and living, and that above all she make a few new friends and appreciate that you want her to experience everything she can as a kid so she can write a blog about camping when she grows up 🙂
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