Biscuit at camp

This is the third summer for Biscuit at his summer camp. 

We tried a YMCA camp after kindergarten, and at the end of the summer, he turned his little 5-year-old face toward us and said, "Guys, I had fun a camp, but I didn't learn a thing."

So he asked if we could look at some other options.

The camp he's been going to for the past three years still has swimming every day and games and songs, but he gets three tennis lessons and three golf lessons each week.

My only worry has been him finding friends.

The first year was easy. There was a kid he already knew, so he had one instant friend.

Last year, it was a little harder. Biscuit goes to my parents' house for several weeks throughout the summer. But some of the camp kids go every week from beginning to end. So it's only natural that those kids would get to know each other better.

One day last summer, I got to camp and the assistant director pulled me aside. He said he was concerned about Biscuit because at lunchtime, he ended up sitting by himself. The assistant director went over and ate with him. He talked to him about making friends and said he'd be happy to introduce Biscuit to some of the other boys. I thought that was really sweet. And the next week, Biscuit did make a friend that he kept for the rest of his time there.

So this year, I was worried again. ('Cause I'm really, really good at the worrying!)

But it turns out, I was worrying for nothing (which is often the case).

The first week, Biscuit and this other boy thought they recognized each other. It turns out, they went to the same daycare. It's funny to me that they're both 9, and they had a reunion and talked about the old days.

The second week, one of the counselors called me to the side when I went to pick up Biscuit. She said that there was a first-year camper sitting by himself at lunch, and Biscuit and his daycare friend went over, sat with him, talked to him and offered him some advice about how to make friends.

I liked how he remembered how it felt to be the odd man out and decided to help another little boy.

That same week, he ran up on a kid who had been at the same camp the year before. Then this week, there's a boy who goes to his school.

I have to let him go out and live his life and make his own friends and make his own mistakes, too. But it sure is hard not to follow him around fixing everything for him.