Camp

The house is very quiet this week. My daughter is away at camp. This is her second year at “away camp”. I was reluctant until last year to send her to any camp, much less a resident camp. I wanted to make sure she was ready for the experience. She was.

As a recreation major, I worked five summers at camps during college. My first camp job was at a private resident camp south of Houston. Campers would come as far away as South America for three-week sessions. Next, it was two summers at a local YMCA day camp. We would take kids each day on buses to a wooded section of one of Fort Worth's municipal parks.

And if that wasn't enough of the great outdoors, I spent two summers at Girl Scout camps – a sailing camp and a horseback riding camp. I don't even ride horses! Luckily, I was the business manager and didn't have to participate in the bi-weekly rodeos! It rained so much that summer, that trees were falling over. Thankfully, none of them landed on a camper. The sailing camp was fun. That is until there was a water spout during the afternoon sail on the Houston ship channel and I almost got struck by lightning.

Now as I look back, I am amazed so many parents trust college students with the well-being of their children. And not for just a couple of days, but in some instances, for multiple week sessions. I never witnessed or participated in anything remotely questionable regarding children's safety, but the opportunities are definitely there if someone's so motivated.

When my daughter was five, I heard about a well-known day camp in my community. I was told that EVERYONE sends there kiddos there. I checked out the wooded camp in the middle of town. “No, I don't think I feel comfortable with my five-year-old in the woods all day.” “But it is a church-related camp. There's nothing to worry about,” I was told on more than one occasion.

I read recently that more children drown every year in swimming pools that from guns. At five, my daughter couldn't even tread water. If she was in any body of water, I wanted my eyeballs watching her.

I recently attended a sexual abuse awareness training. By age 18, one of every three girls and one of every six boys will be sexually molested. The news sensationalizes these crimes committed by strangers. But 90% of child sexual abuse victims are abused by someone they know and trust.

Well, as an 11-year-old, she can swim adequately now. And we have lectured her many times about the dangers of predators. So, I reluctantly sent her to a four-day resident camp last summer. She loved it.

She is back again this summer, with a friend in tow. Next week, she will attend that locally famous day camp for the first time.

I am enjoying the solitude. But I as a parent I still reserve the right to worry.