Homesick Campers

Homesick Campers

Should they start packing?
When should homesick children leave residential summer camp and return home? This decision is usually a tough call for parents. Some homesick feelings are common to most campers, even kids who've camped before. Young first-timers often have trouble dealing with family separation-anxieties and fears. Adolescent campers may miss their girlfriends and boyfriends back home.

Camp should not be considered an emotional ordeal or rite of passage that must be endured, but the experience does foster resilience when children show themselves to be capable of coping with and recovering from homesickness at camp.

Your child may ask you to take her home at any time during her camp experience. She may want to come home within the first few days of her stay, simply because she misses the stability of her home and family. She might want to leave immediately after an unpleasant social incident or because she is the "only" child in her bunk who hasn't made a best buddy within the first week. There are also those moments at bedtime when kids predictably feel more sad and homesick than usual, even after a great day at camp.

When talking about instances like these with your child, empathize with her, encourage her to talk about what's going well at camp, and ask her to "hang in there" for a couple of days, as you enlist the help of the camp's director, counseling staff, and counselors. Parents should discuss how a camp director handles homesickness when selecting summer camps for your child. Avoid camps where directors communicate an insensitive, tough-it-out attitude toward homesickness.

When it's time to come home The intensity and frequency of your child's homesickness are the two key variables to consider when determining whether to take her home. If the following behaviors persist for several consecutive days despite your coordinated best efforts with the camp's director, I would seriously consider taking your child home from camp: