stephenwinbaum
Communications Coordinator
/ Moderator
Sep 17, 2007, 12:33 PM
Post #1 of 1
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Campsickness - The Post-Summer Blues
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Homesickness is a well-known and often-discussed phenomenon in the camping world. Kids go off to camp and find the adjustment away from home to be difficult.
Now, there's a new camp problem - campsickness - when children long for the fun of a summer departed and pine for friends who live afar.
Many parents are surprised to discover that their children don't want to go home. Their kids might cry for a few days until the reality of the new school year sets in, and it's down to business as usual.
Child psychologists have coined the phrase 'campsickness' for the after-camp blues – a mild form of anxiety that is the opposite of homesickness.
The upside to campsickness is that it provides children with a growth experience to encounter and deal with minor emotions of loss.
Naturally, parents are urged to lend a hand and to provide their children with opportunities to talk, to patiently offer the right spots to open up.
Plus, there's the wide world of telecommunications – telephone, e-mail, and instant messaging, so kids can keep in touch with camp buddies.
Overall, children need to envision summer camp as a unique experience that doesn't last all year, and that melancholy at its finale is part of a life cycle.
Shakespeare once said: If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.
Children come to realize that there are certain lessons to be learned at camp. But to gain maturity, they understand that camp is an opportunity to grow, and to carry that experience through the school year, until it's time for summer again.
Parting is such sweet sorrow – another quote from The Bard – if children have that kind of experience at summer camp, they know it's been a great, wonderful life chapter – one to be missed – until new friends and better times emerge.
Stephen Winbaum is the Communications Coordinator of MySummerCamps.com
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(This post was edited by stephenwinbaum on Sep 17, 2007, 12:47 PM)
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