8 year old son suffers with home sickness

[Nagley]

Hi there.

My 8 year old has a school trip coming up in December for two nights and he is really worrying.

He has always happily had sleep overs at his friends until in March of this year he was sick at a sleep over and came home :-( Since then he has found sleeps overs very hard.

A month ago he went to cub camp and but came home at 3 am.

He really wants to go on the school trip but is worrying about getting homesick.

I suffered terribly from being home sick as a child, he has no idea about that!

Any words of wisdom would be VERY welcome!!!

Thank you x

I suffered badly with homesickness. Not sure how to deal with it. My Mum used to wangle herself a place on the trip!

I grew out of it when I was 10 and had to go to boarding school for a term. I suppose it was the equivalent of cold turkey!

Only suggestion would be to get him to do a sleepover at his friends again.

I remember going to a sleepover and crying so my friends mum gave me a cup of cocoa and i called my mum. after that i felt much better and happily stayed the night. i was probably about 8.

Could you suggest he call you? Would the school find it an odd request?

Does calling you make it worse or better? TBH I think he may have to face the fact that he will be home sick, and that he needs to see it through anyway, or not go.

DS did a 2.5wk trip with school last year (age 8). He was horrendously home sick at bedtime every night, but with hindsight (and even at the time) he considered that it was worth it for all the fun stuff. He emailed more than he rang, as he would always end up crying when he spoke to me.

Also, has he tried taking a reminder of home? I don't mean his teddy, more something like a book that you write a note in that he can keep close when he feels homesick. bedtime is always the worst!

Why not his bear? I gave DS's bear a special stock of emergency Mummy hugs before they went, so that bear could deliver them to DS when he needed them most - DS said it helped a bit.

I was teased for taking my bear. Maybe that's when my homesickness started....

DS was really nervous about being teased for taking bear, but when we arrived one of the other boys had his bear strapped to the back of his back pack. I could have hugged them both . From what I can gather, bears are an accepted essential for such trips nowadays.

Glad to hear it! I have a feeling DS will be wanting to take his!!

When my DS went on a school trip when he was 12 all the boys had teddy bears with them. Seems to be expected now.