I thought summer camp was supposed to be filled with fun activities, new friendships, arts&crafts, field trips and swimming. Well how surprised was I when my 5yo DD came home with stories of how the kids were treating one another. The camp is divided into different age groups which I think is an excellent idea. My DD was in the group for 3-5 year olds and frequentl merged with the 6-8 year olds. After the internet fallout over Gabby Douglas’ ponytail, I felt that behavior was unnecessary and ridiculous. It also makes you makes you if the comments were made byAfrican American mothers. I say this because I had no clue my DD was subjected to such meanness from her peers at camp. It made me wonder where and how do kids learn such behavior and the biggest question is WHY? I graduated from an all girls high school and I can clearly remember the “petty” issues students had with one another. Now as I look back on high school 25 years later, I have to say wow when I think of the unofficial “mean girls” club of students. I never experienced any of the truly “petty” behavior or was it enough to ruin my high school experience but it was not a perfect setting. It was amazing how opinions were created based solely on hearsay or assumptions. I think having that experience in high school makes me want to try to shield my DD from such behaviors. In an ideal world I guess this is possible but in the “real world” it is extremely difficult to shield your child from some of the negative looming in the world.
The unfortunate part for my DD is she will forever remember other African American peers telling her hair was “nappy” and her clothes were not stylish. How do you shield your 5yo from this despicable behavior? During her final few days of camp, I made it a point to reach out to the program director to let him know about the comments. He(program director) did inform me their behavior was a problem throughout the camp weeks. If he knew this what steps were they trying to implement so that kids recognize this is not appropriate behavior? I thought this specific camp or the organization as a whole was established to be a staple within the community it serves. A community based facility where children are equipped with skills in extra-curricular activities. I am having a hard time considering this camp for next year unless I see some program in place to teach children what it means to respect our peers. It truly saddens me that other children are so disconnected culturally from what really defines the beauty of our culture……
I truly sent my DD to camp to advance with her swimming, arts&crafts, theme week activities not for her to be subjected to a “beauty pageant” episode. In a previous post, I mentioned how I constantly have to reiterate to my DD how beautiful her hair is and it only took a few weeks at summer camp for all of my talking to be thrown out of a window. Hopefully, my DD is not scarred from her camp experience and she realizes her beauty despite the insensitive words of others. I never thought parenting would be this difficult so soon……
-CocoaMommy