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Summer camp horror story No. 1
The other day my husband picked up my 8-year-old daughter from summer day camp with the city of Tampa Parks and Recreation. She was withdrawn, upset and pale.
Turns out, she says that she and a friend had been threatened by another 8-year-old, upset about some problem with the computer. As my daughter tells it, the girl said: "You better tell your friend to watch it, because I've got a knife in my backpack and I'm going to get it and stab her."
What?? Seriously? My daughter walked away from the threatening girl, but did not tell anyone in charge.
My husband took up the incident with the counselors and checked on my daughter's friend. The girl in question was pulled out of camp, her backpack searched (nothing found) and sent home. She was not allowed to come back the next day, but returned after that.
Meanwhile, my daughter is like, what is going on? And I'm like, how can I send her back there? I have awful thoughts in my head about the girl sneaking any blunt instrument into her backpack and using it against another camper. And then I think, it's probably just something she heard and it's not really something to worry about. And what I really want is for the kids to be constantly supervised so things like this don't happen -- or escalate.
But come on, isn't my daughter too young for this? We had a long talk about sticking with her friends, staying away from the girl and keeping an eye out for counselors. She went back today without complaint, with the girl in attendance, too. (She did worry that the girl would make up stuff to get her in trouble for payback. I'm like, well, yes, that could happen.)
This Momma is worried sick. So are her friend's Mommas. Can't we just enjoy the summer?
-- Amy Hollyfield
[Jupiterimages]
- A tangled Web
- Child care conundrums
- Discipline
- Every parent's nightmare
- Is that for real?
- Oh no he di'nt
- Playtime!
- Time to vent
- What were they thinking?
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Sharon Kennedy Wynne has sunscreen in her blood. She may have been born in Buffalo but she got here as fast as she could, in time for kindergarten. She grew up in St. Petersburg, graduated from the University of Florida journalism school, and even got married at Sunken Gardens. She's one of the few adults we know who actually loves taking her kids to the beach. She has two sons and with 10 years of parenting under her belt, she's starting to feel a little less out of her league. She comes from a large family and loves to debate, so brace yourself when the hot topics come up.
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Freelance writer Courtney Cairns Pastor wasn’t so sure about having kids and how she would balance child-rearing with her journalism career. It turned out that her journalism training went to good use. As the mom to a funny, active toddler, she learned to handle him like she did her sources. Never ask yes or no questions (the answer will always be no), get him to be specific (are you crying because you’re wet or your tooth hurts?) and be prepared for anything because no two days are the same. When she’s not playing trucks, Courtney crams for her book club, trains for races and occasionally bursts into showtunes. E-mail her at 
Suzannah DiMarzio has it bad for the Mouse. Although she grew up outside of Boston, she took her degree in tourism management down to Orlando just to work at Disney and the travel industry. Of course, when she married her high school sweetheart, the reception was at Disney. She’s now a seasoned stay-at-home mom to two tweens and a toddler – and yes, that is as crazy as it sounds. Suzannah has her own blog, Comment Policy
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