Brownie Camp and Where Have Seven Years Gone?

Well one week worth of packing and running around hunting for labels for my daughter’s belongings and Brownie camp appears to have gone smashingly. We dropped my seven-year-old off at Brownie Camp Friday night together. The whole family gave her a send off and wished her well, even if it was only for a very short weekend away.

There’s a small camp site just outside London, close to St. Thomas that the local Brownie camp uses every year just outside London. She has been looking forward to this for weeks, so we worked hard to make sure it would happen and then gave her the big family send off yesterday.

The beauty of a small camp being so close by is obvious to most parents….you can basically be on call all weekend in the event that something materializes and you need to urgently drive down the road to pick up your tiny humans.

Payton has been a Brownie for a year or so now. Before that she was a Spark. She loves being a part of these social activities after school and I enjoy seeing her thrive. Plus, Brownies allows her to explore her creativity and grow social skills.

Time Speeds By

Laugh if you must, but it’s the first time she’s ever even slept over anywhere. So as big a deal as it was for Payton, it was an even bigger deal for me, her Mom, the one who tucks her in and gives her story time and back scratches before bed.

Anyways, despite my last minute what’s our phone number drills and hugs and nerves, I’ve not heard even a peep from Brownie camp. Part happy. Part sad. Like the first time she started walking. You teach them to start to walk and talk and then they start walking away from you and then running too and you wonder why you ever taught them that skill in the first place.

Happy Kids Equal Happy Moms

I am of course happy she is so comfortable and confident at seven that she can stay at camp with a group of friends and not be completely homesick. At that age I would have been despondent to have even slept overnight at a friend’s house. Thanks to the powers that be for a child who is not a shrinking violet.

In fact, I am a little in awe of her social butterfly qualities. This is not something that comes easily to me, an introvert and writer used to spending days in an office or simply creating things at home.

So, here’s to introverts who are raising extroverts and are forever left in awe of that.

Where Did Seven Years Go?

Anyways I’m off to go enjoy quiet time and maybe spend a couple of minutes in her bedroom wondering where seven years has gone.