This week needs to end soon. It�s a good thing that tomorrow is Friday. Me, I�m doing fine but Day-Hay needs to get out of rock climbing camp. It�s not the camp itself that�s a problem. It�s her counselor. I could take her out tomorrow when I�m home but she doesn�t want to miss her friends and it�s a good thing to learn to live with problem people. Still, I�ll be glad when the week is over.

Her counselor is not evil and he�s not mean. He just has no idea about how to work with young teens and, unlike the camps of other weeks, this one has 11-14 year olds in it. As he put it, he was trained to work with 7-10 year olds. He also has a high need for control all the time. Putting that fear of losing control with only a four year age gap between the oldest kids and the counselor makes for a difficult situation. It sometimes warps his judgment and causes problems that needn�t be.

For example, the camp allows 12-15 year olds to be counselors-in-training (CITs). They don�t have enough for every group but some administrator who was not thinking assigned one to the rock climbing group. (If the CIT were belay-certified, I�d understand it but this particular CIT is not belay-certified.) The counselor, who is accustomed to younger kids, made the mistake of telling the 11-14 year olds in his group that they could not go into the locker room without the CIT because it was dangerous. The kids are still trying to figure out what the 13 year old CIT would do to protect them that they could not do themselves. He made them feel like babies and they resent it.

Apparently, even he figured out that there was a problem sometime in the last day or so and has been trying to loosen up. He has not the wisdom to realize that few 11-14 year olds respond to the feeling that they are being spoken down to, especially if they have done nothing immature to earn it. He�ll learn but Day-Hay�s patience is wearing thin. Unfortunately, when her patience wears thin, her temper frays. There was a ruckus today. I�d prefer not to have a big blow-out tomorrow.

So, I�ll send her to camp tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed. Day-Hay dreams of being a CIT next year. Getting in trouble might put an end to those dreams. I just hope she can hold on to that thought.

Wish us both luck.

LAST YEAR: Dancing Fool

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Copyright 2006 by Ellen