What are the three most common mistakes parents make
when sending their children to camp for the first time?
Expert: Penny Warner, child development expert and
author of Parent's and Kid's Complete Guide to Summer Camp
Fun: Everything You Need to Prepare for an Incredible Camp
Adventure!
1. Overlooking Separation Anxiety
"We may underestimate, or we may not even express,
our fears that our child will have some separation anxiety and
homesickness. I don't want to think about my child being scared
or unhappy, so I am going to focus on the good stuff, the fun. But,
I think we just need to admit that there is this fear and deal with
it ahead of time. You don't want to talk the child
into it — you don't want to say 'you're
probably going to be homesick.' You want to open up the
opportunity to chat about it: 'you know I'll be gone for
the day, you'll be having so much fun at the camp, but I'm
going to come back and get you at 4:00 and then we'll go have
pizza.' Minimize that fear that you're never coming back.
You might send along something from home to make that connection to
home. For example, a picture of the family that you can tuck into a
pocket or you can put one of his smaller toys in a pocket so that
'whenever you think of mommy, just think about this little
thing in your pocket.'"
To read the other two pitfalls to avoid, go to babble.
