Our son has started day camp. We hadn’t done it before for various reasons, most of which still pertain. This year we decided it should happen anyway, rather than our boy sitting at home all summer. I’m glad we made that decision, because just before camp started his best friends went abruptly out of town. (Their dad threatened their mom, and thank $DEITY, she packed herself and the kids and left before he got home.) So every morning between 7:00 and 7:15, he and I pile into the car and drive over to the “local” Jewish Federation.
Local is a relative term. Their territory covers all of Northwest Indiana, and they’re based right on the Illinois line. So while it’s closer than, say, South Bend, it’s hardly close. My first thought was that 25 miles wasn’t too bad, and it isn’t, but 25 miles each way twice a day suddenly becomes 100 miles. I can certainly combine necessary errands with the drive, but even at that most places aren’t yet open when I drop him off. So the grocery shopping got done this morning, but by the time I got home it was hot enough that I really didn’t want to be outside mowing. I guess tomorrow I’ll come directly home so that the yard gets a haircut.
So it is, as one of the other women in the congregation put it, quite a schlep. On the other hand, he’s gotten in the car at the end of the day bubbling over with the games he played, and what they did swimming, and who he found to run around with, and all the other things that go with day camp. Last year he was nervous about crowds of strangers, and I didn’t push. This year his first reaction was that he might make some friends, and he does indeed seem to be. I’m glad he reached this point now, because by next year he’ll be too old for it. And for all it’s a lot of driving, it really is worth it to see my kid simultaneously excited and worn out from running his feet off. He was dressed and ready to go half an hour before we needed to be, bounced out the door as soon as I had my clothes on and his lunch packed, and chattered about what he’d be doing today the whole 45 minute trip. He was just has talkative coming home. He’s a happy kid.
So it’s worth the drive. Having a happy, not even remotely bored kid is what it’s all about, in the end.