The school year is done and we’re in camp mode. You would think that camp mode wouldn’t make much of a difference to me since it’s not like my work hours change, but camp mode beats school mode by a country mile. I loooove camp mode. Yes, camp mode means packing lunches, still, and lots of laundry, but camp mode also means no homework! (I never thought that, as an adult, I would have the same visceral reaction to homework that I did as a middle schooler. But I do! It’s almost worse now, because I have to pretend for the sake of my children that homework is an essential part of growing up. And that it will make you smarter. But I can’t help feeling like homework is a punishment for parents. Anyway, I digress.)
Watching my children in camp mode brings me right back to my childhood. The smell of sunscreen and chlorine, popsicles, swimming, lounging on the grass, playing Frisbee, trudging across the lawn with a backpack loaded down with towels, a lunch bag, and swimming suit, moving from activity to activity. I loved camp, and I’m so thrilled my children love it, too. But the best part about camp mode has to be the complete and total full-body-I-can’t-move-so-don’t-ask-me exhaustion. There’s nothing better than a full day of camp, dinner on the grill, and an early bedtime. Ah…to be a kid again!
