Took my nearly five-year-old to a holiday camp this morning. She's been before and usually enjoys it, but today she just wasn't in the mood. Kept asking if it was a half day and seemed really off. I had work straight after drop-off with back-to-back Teams meetings, so I needed it to go smoothly.
When we got there it was chaos. Loads of kids, staff looked overwhelmed, and no one really engaged with us. I was told to just walk her into the hall. She started crying and clinging to me, and it felt like no one noticed or cared. There was no attempt to help settle her. It just didn’t feel right. So I took her home.
I rang the camp a bit later to let them know, just in case they wondered where she was. Then I get a call back saying she’s absolutely fine now and has settled in nicely! Except… she hadn’t. She was sitting at home with me, back in her pyjamas eating strawberries. So they clearly mistook her for someone else, which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence for trying again.
When I told my mum what happened (as need her for other days this summer), she said I should have left her to cry and that she would’ve been fine after a few minutes. But she never used holiday camps with me when I was little. I always went to a relative’s house, so it’s not really the same..is this a normal boomer parent?
Now I’m dealing with work, a clingy child, and the usual guilt. I didn’t want to traumatise her or feel like I was leaving her somewhere that didn’t feel safe. But part of me wonders if I overreacted and if I should have encouraged her to push through it :(
😢