Nervous about the Return to Summer Camp

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
So...my difficult child was officially kicked out of summer camp for the rest of the day on Friday. One of the counselors called my on my cell and one of us had horrible service, so all I got was "he's being too violent"..."pregnant woman"..."has to leave. Sorry." I said I would be right there (I was leaving early and already crying when he called as I felt AWFUL with, possibly, the flu).

When I got there, there were 2 girls sitting at a table who just looked at me when I walked in. I told them I was there for my difficult child. She said she saw my son crying a lot since she's been there. I asked what had happened before and she had no clue! They had just done a shift change... I asked what the man on the phone had been talking about... No clue. Well, where was he? Oh, he left, already.

So... Where's my son's journal (the one where they record any incidents throughout the day)? They don't know... I look under some papers on the table and find it...NOT written in. I see my son playing ball with some girls and it's, of course, a struggle to get him to come over. He finally does, but then, quickly, runs away to the other side of the room to get some bag filled with nuts and candy...maybe some cereal... He said he was going to make an ice cream sundae with the melted mess. I threw it away.

So, upon asking my son what he did, he didn't know (of course). After threatening to make him go to bed at 6pm, he finally came out with something along the lines of repeatedly throwing a ball at some girl and a staff member. He wanted to play dodge ball, they didn't... Bah...

Gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :hammer:

What do I have to do to work with these people and my child?!
I can't even call them during the day because the # they gave me to call them is someone's cell phone that's never answered! When I give them my work # to call me, they call my cell phone (no matter how many times I tell them i CAN'T answer my cell at work).

*sigh* What the heck will tomorrow bring?! Who do I have to fight with?! Mondays are the days I have to go straight to work and have no time to even drop my son off (husband does it). husband has to leave immediately after the drop off as camp opens at 8:15 and he has to be at work by 8:30. The camp makes no acceptions to making time for parents before or after camp to discuss issues. When my difficult child has had problems during the day, the staff wouldn't discuss it with my husband or me as they were in a hurry and had no time to talk.

This isn't fair!!! I have nowhere else to put my difficult child for the summer!!!!!!!!!! :crying:
 

Janna

New Member
Obviously, the current situation isn't working. You're going to have to fight to get something to change, or you will just keep getting call after call after call to get difficult child from camp. Been there done that.

We have a service here called Wrap Around. I'm pretty sure most psychiatrist offices or counseling agencies have something of the sort now. They can offer you a TSS (Theraputic Support Specialist). This person could probably go to camp with your difficult child , at least some of the time, to help out with some things, and maybe ease up some of the issues you have.

Them not communicating with you is a bad scenario for everyone. Truthfully, I need my job something awful, but if my son, any of them, difficult child or not, was in a situation like this, I'd remove them from the camp. It wouldn't matter if I had to quit, I'd figure something else out. You're getting (probably) half truths from difficult child, nothing from the camp, and that's just terrible. Maybe you could go to the director of the camp and complain. Something needs to change.
 
G

guest3

Guest
Well My son is "graduating" our of day therapy and Militant SW wants me to enroll him in a mainstream camp, she says he has to fail in order to succeed. I am TERRIFIED! She obviously won't be the one getting sued if difficult child II hurts someone!

I feel your pain and will be thinking of you 2morrow as I try to find a "mainstream" camp that will take him, militant SW basically told me to "lie" and not disclose all the details of difficult child II"s condition, only the barest details, nice huh?
 

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
That's awful about being told to lie. What exactly is militant SW? What do they do and does it help?

I constantly think about whether a special program school would better suit my son, but at the same time, I'm not sure if pulling him out of mainstream would hurt him more than help.

I wish I knew a proper diagnosis for him. Having to hunt down facilities that will help us is tough. *sigh* How quickly everything can just fall apart, just as you thought you had it all under control.

Good luck with putting your difficult child in mainstream camp. Personally, I try to give them every detail about my son to let them know what to prepare for.

When I was working with kids, it would have been nice to have had a heads-up instead of being completely caught off guard when a I'd find out the hard way that so and so liked to whip metal chairs across the room and lick walls. When I did find out these behaviors from certain kids, it did nothing but bring me closer to them and pay more attention to them. Hopefully, if you open up, you'll get a counselor like that.

These kids really need -even just one- counselor that gives a care about their special needs and will act on it.

I'll be thinking about you, too. <3
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Ok, is this a camp for special needs kids?
If it's not, unfortunately, there probably aren't any counselors who know how to deal with your child. I can't believe they won't make ANY time to talk to you. That's insane.
Is there any way you could hire somebody to come to your house to watch him? Is he better at home, without all those kids and extra stimulation? You could maybe advertise for somebody who is used to kids who have difficulties.
I wish I could offer more, but I feel really bad for you and angry at the way the camp is handling this. They sound really disorganized.
Now I have a question. What is MDD? Whenever I see it, I'm not sure what it stands for. Thanks :smile:
 

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
For me, MDD stands for Major Depression Disorder.

This camp is NOT a place for kids with special needs. It's with the Parks and Rec Dept, so I could understand their lack of knowledge with dealing with a child of mine, hence me trying to communicate with them.

But even so, if my child had no issues, they are still highly uncoordinated. I mean, what place doesn't update their next shift staff? It's ridiculous. Oh! And did I mention the *insert colorful name here* woman said "well, maybe if you let him sleep more". !!! Grrrr!!! He sleeps fine with the exception of the occasional, horrendous nightmare stages he has.
I'm proud at my restraint when that girl, younger than me, who's never even met me before, tried to give me advice about a situation she didn't even know about.

As for hiring someone... I'm a bit paranoid with trusting people I don't really know. I don't if I could have someone come to my house, with no other witnesses, and do God knows what to my house or child. :p I hope nobody thinks I'm silly... If I did get to the point of in-home care, I'd have to get a million cameras and sound devices to record everything and I'd probably end up interrogating my son everyday trying to find out if anything bad happened.

It wouldn't be very healthy. In fact, until my son was old enough to talk and tell me if anything happened at daycare, I didn't work to stay home with him.

Thank God my daughter was able to go right to her grandmother's when I had to go back to work.

Anyway, now that I've spilled that, I'll try to remember it when I finally get into therapy. Can anyone tell me if this paranoia is normal? Can anyone relate?

Thanks for your suggestions... I'll keep working on it. :}
 
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