Soapbox

So I’ve got this kid…

and he went off for a week at Scout camp for the first (and maybe the last) time. He had gone round and round about whether he would go or not, but in the end decided to attend for the mature, sensible reason that he didn’t want to be the only boy from the pack that didn’t go.
We took him to camp on Sunday and settled him into his tent, with his belongings arranged neatly under his cot. When we left, the pack was getting ready to go swimming and he as running around the campsite with his towel draped over his shoulders being "Super Scout" the super hero. It looked like he was ready to have a good time. However, he doesn’t like changes, and he is prone to homesickness. So the next morning when we woke up I joked to Ted, "Well, 12 hours and no phone call from Stephen, ha ha!"

On Tuesday evening at 9:15 the phone rang. Collect from Stephen, will you accept the charges? Oh, this cannot be good.

A tremulous voice said, "Mom…?"
(Sigh, attempt to sound cheerful and not doom-ridden,) "What’s up, buddy?"
"Well…well, I have about 72 mosquito bites and a spider bit me on the leg and now it’s all swelled up and I haven’t eaten anything at all but peanut butter and jelly because the food is really weird here, and… and I’m really sorry, but I lost my watch, I don’t know how and… and I"m miserable and I hate it and I want to come ho-o-omme!"

As a mother, my first concern was for the spider bite, but Dad thought another tack was called for and signaled me for the phone.
"Hey pal, what merit badges have you been working on?" he asked. "…Yeah, being homesick is no fun is it, but did you pass your swim test? Great! What else have you been working on?….really? That sounds interesting…yeah, that sounds like fun, Stephen."
And I heard our son say "Oh yeah, it’s kind of cool- except…" he caught himself quickly "…except that I hate it and want to come home."
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