Bugs and Robbers

11pm Monday night, I was just drifting off to sleep, ready for sweet dreams of Thai food and Tivo, when I heard my front door open. I was out of bed and dressed before I heard my name being called.

The second night of the summer and counselor C was standing at my door. It was her co-counselor L's night off and she looked slightly frazzled as she explained, "All 8 of them (her 9 year old girls) are crying and I can't get them to stop and so I asked them if I should go get you and they said it would help. Can you come to my cabin?"

Homesickness is the worst when kids get over-tired and once one starts crying, the rest will usually follow. I had absolutely no plan as I walked across camp towards the crying cabin and when I arrived, they were all huddled together on 2 beds. And so, as I'd just finished repeating to the counselors over and over during training, I started with a question- I asked what was upsetting all of them.

It turns out, they were scared.

Of what?

Bugs and robbers.

"Well, you're lucky, because other than mosquitoes, which bite, but just make you itch, we don't have any biting bugs at this camp." As I told them that, I ignored the memories of the fat, hairy, silver dollar-sized spiders I have killed so many times, all over camp. "And as for robbers, you don't have to worry about that either because our Property Manager is not only responsible for fixing things, he also guards camp at night. He walks around and makes sure we are safe."

They accepted both lies without question and then I walked around and checked everyone's beds for bugs. Once we determined they were bug-free, the girls got back into bed. I had all of them say their favorite thing of the day, explaining that happy thoughts help you sleep. One girl mentioned that Olivia had been her favorite part of the day, so then I spent the next 10 minutes telling them stories about her chewing up the couch and eating my office chair until the girls started laughing and were much calmer. Eventually I turned out the lights and stood in the middle of a dark cabin until I heard them start to fall asleep.

Afterwards, I had to sprint back to my cabin because camp is dark and scary at night, and they had a point about the bugs and robbers.

Last night, anticipating the same overtired homesick crying situation, I had a plan. X is still here, helping me with ridiculous projects, so she and I cut and tied 7 fleece pillows. We left one side open and the stuffing out and I found some wooden hearts. I went to the cabin before bed and we had a long talk about self confidence and relying on inner strength and being proud of yourself. As we stuffed the pillows, we talked about them being a representation of holding all of our good qualities that make us strong and overnight, if anyone got scared, to hold onto their pillow and remember that they can get through it. They each went around the circle and said the quality they are most proud of and put the heart inside the pillow to represent it.

When I left, they seemed calm and ready for bed. This morning their counselors told me they fell right to sleep as soon as I left. Either the pillows were a success or they were just really tired from being up late the night before, but either way, I didn't have to get up at 11 and comfort anyone.