Note To Huawni Parents On Homesickness

We’re right in the middle of day two of Camp, and for some of you parents, homesickness is on your mind. Your child has never been away from home for more than a night. Other than with their grandparents, your children may not have spent more than a couple of nights away from you.

Since many of you have a child away from home for the first time, I wanted to blog in detail this summer specifically on the topic of homesickness. I’ll be reading and commenting on the book “Homesick and Happy” by Dr. Michael Thompson to help guide our discussion. If you want a free copy, just comment below and I’ll send you one this week.

Here’s the good news for you whose children are experiencing homesickness— it’s an incredible growth opportunity. I am confident your choosing camp is maybe the single best gift you could give to your child. As Michael Thompson says, “I believe that at many points in their children’s lives, parents need to step aside, ask other adults to take over and even send their children away in order to help their offspring become loving, productive, moral, and independent young adults.” For those of you who’ve attended Huawni, you’ve experienced this. For you first-year parents, it’s much harder to know because you haven’t experienced it yourself. And for all parents, it’s tough just letting go. I’ve experienced that already in the four short months of our baby boy, Barrett’s, life.

A handful of you may have already gotten your first homesick letter from your child (see pages 97-99). This is very normal, especially during the first week of camp. Here’s a few things I want you parents to know. First, our staff is thoroughly trained and has extensive experience walking children through homesickness. It’s quite the norm for us; we know how to spot it and how to treat it. Second, we keep close tabs on which campers are homesick and follow up with those children regularly to make sure they’re having a good camp. I had a meeting this morning where we reviewed all the homesick cases and how we were planning on following up. And finally, if a homesick case ever goes to what we call Stage 3, we’ll give you a call. If you don’t hear from us, know that your child is doing well.

I actually got a chance to speak with one of our campers who was homesick this morning at breakfast. I enjoy walking camper through this issue because you literally get to see kids respond and grow in relatively a short period time. I asked this camper if it was his first time away from home, and he said it was. As we train our staff to do, I let him know right away that what he was feeling was okay and normal. I then proceeded to tell him about my homesick experience. Some of you may have read about in a blog post from last week. Essentially, I went to sleepaway baseball camp in Oklahoma, and it wasn’t until the second week that I finally got over my homesickness. After empathizing and sharing my story, you could see a glimmer of hope in this boy’s eyes. He was encouraged. I was encouraged. He was ready to conquer the day.

This week, I’ll be covering the first few chapters of the book “Homesick & Happy”. I’d love for you to follow along with me and post your thoughts below under the “What are you gonna say?” box. For you first-year parents, how was it for you leaving your child at camp for the first time? For you returning families, how have you seen your child grow through homesickness?