Parenting Guru: Summer camp and mean girls
I was never a camper. I was never a Girl Scout. But back when I was 8 years old I was both, for a week anyway. Let the macramé begin.
My BFF was a Girl Scout and invited me to spend 7 girl-empowering days with her and about 100 other Girl Scouts at Camp Osito Rancho. Not only was this my first time camping, it was my first time away from home. I was so ready to do this - or so I thought.
The moment we arrived, the Girl Scout Leader shouted, "Four girls to a cabin, four girls to a cabin!" My friend and I were paired with two 9 year old besties with sassitude and an apparent axe to grind. These girls were hardcore, we could tell. They spoke their own secret language, they talked about boys, french kissing and periods. These girls knew stuff.
Our cabin roomies didn't like us from the start. They poked fun at the great care our mothers took in packing our suitcases and laughed at my stationary kit to write home. My friend was made of tougher stuff than I was, maybe because she had an older brother. She stood pretty tall against these girls as I cried and wondered what I ever did to them.
For days we tried to ignore our cabin roommates as we distracted ourselves with arts and crafts, nature hikes and campfire songs.
By the 3rd day in I was done - dirty, bitten, sunburned, ridiculed and desperately homesick. I wrote my parents telling them how much fun I was having because I was pretty sure that was what they wanted to hear.
By day 5 and about 40 team building exercises later, I began to learn a little bit more about our cabin roomies. Mean Bestie #1 never met her dad and Mean Bestie #2 was being raised by her grandma. These were broken little girls who seemingly only had each other. I didn't know what all that meant at the time, all I knew was seeing them together, clinging so tightly to each other made me sad. These girls were growing up way too fast on account of what they'd seen, but maybe even more than that - on account of what they were missing.
My BFF and I had all the things our roommates were missing and so much more. We had loving parents, we took piano lessons, we lived in a perfect suburban cul-de-sac tucked away from harm and harsh realities. We had nice clothes, plenty of toys and parents to kiss us goodnight. We missed our families and wanted to go home; these girls never wanted to leave.
The day I left Camp Osito Rancho, I left a different girl - a girl with a lot of questions about life outside of my own.
Sometimes I wonder about mean besties and the lives they grew up to lead. I wonder if they found their way. I wonder if they became mothers like I did. I wonder if resilience and their fighter spirits were enough.
Mommyfriend goes by Lori Garcia in real life and is a Shine Parenting Guru. She writes at www.mommyfriend.com where she's busy finding perfection in imperfection daily. When she's not folding laundry she's a Featured Lifestyle Contributor for Yahoo! Contributor Network.
