A Mommy Story

After last week’s introduction to camp, I’m happy to say that no one has been ejected from camp. Yet.

On Wednesday morning, I saw Cordy’s after-care teacher and told her that I thought Cordy would do well now that she understood the routine. The teacher, however, was unconvinced and again tried to talk me out of leaving her in after-care. She yet again mentioned that Cordy needed other kids to play with because she was lonely. I assured her that Cordy loves to play by herself.

And then she said, “It’s not right for a child to be that upset. You didn’t see how she was on Monday. I’ve never seen anyone that upset before. I’m amazed they were able to carry her to the room.”

I was unimpressed. “Was she bleeding?” I asked.

“Uh, no.”

“Then she wasn’t that upset,” I explained. “When she’s so out of control that she hits her head on things until she bleeds, then call me. THAT is her ‘really upset’.”

“Well, you’ll be home today, right? I’ll call you to come get her if she has any problems.”

I rolled my eyes. “I hope you’ll try to work out the problems BEFORE calling me.” And with that, I left.

As I expected on Wednesday, after I had a long chat with Cordy about what to expect from the after-care routine, and after the teachers decided they would take her directly inside instead of to the pick-up area, Cordy had a fabulous time. When we went to pick her up, she was sitting quietly in the room with a teacher beside her, drawing picture after picture and describing what she was drawing.

They reported that she had no issues at all that day, and really enjoyed the afternoon. See? I know my kid.

The next morning, I saw the after-care teacher again, smiled sweetly and said, “I hear she had a great day yesterday! I told you it would all work out!”

No smile in return. Instead, she frowned and said, “Well, she didn’t have a fit, but she was clearly bored with no one else to play with.”

Whatever, lady. It must suck to be someone who can never be happy.

I spoke with a friend who works there, and she told me that this particular woman teaches kindergarten and is used to working with kids who have been in the daycare system since they were little. These kids know how the system works and give her few problems. Someone like Cordy doesn’t fit in with her idea of how children work.

On Friday, we had thunderstorms moving through Columbus at drop-off, and so all of the kids had to start the morning inside. Cordy was not happy with the group circle time inside, and Aaron had to stay with her for awhile while she cried from the change in routine and all of the noise caused by the echo in the room. She eventually calmed down and had a good day.

The humorous end to the week? On Friday, there were two children with Cordy in after-care.

And what was she doing?

Sitting quietly by herself, looking at a book.

My warrior princess is going to do just fine at camp, in spite of those who would rather she not be there because she’s different.