Boys and School Camp

I said to my oldest boy, ok mate can you please take out the clothes that you wore at camp and put them next to the washing machine for me. So I go to the washing machine and there is two pairs of board shorts, 1 shirt and two pairs of undies. I called out to Jack and said I asked for all the dirty clothes darl. He comes back with that's them. I nearly died! (This is a boy that I argue with every morning to get out of the shower after his 4 minutes.)

Two days before he went to school camp I was washing, ironing, folding. I wanted him to pack his bag for camp so that he knew where everything was and what he had. I put on his bed to pack 3 pairs of track suit pants, two sets of pj's, 5 t-shirts, 2 jumpers, 3 pair of board shorts, a handful of undies, 3 singlet's, gloves, a rain coat.

I flew into 1 million questions, what about all the clothes that we packed,(he shrugged) did you have a shower (yes, it was really hot and I loved it), did you clean your teeth, (smiles and shows me his teeth), why didn't you change your clothes, ( I was so busy I didn't have time), did you have fun - yeah and my gorgeous boy goes, into a massive conversation about the fun, the activities that they did, the challenges, the self confidence that was built, the new friendships formed, the meals that they ate, the amount they laughed.

My husband and I were so proud of our 8 year old for going on camp and learning to become more independent, get out of his comfort zone in the activities that they had to do, the trust and the team that they had to build with his class mates and the challenges they completed. (eg. blind folded, tied together, walking thru bush, following markers to get to a designated spot. Possum pull where they have to trust that there team/ class mates will pull them up with a rope without dropping them).

For everything that he learned, it doesn't matter that he only changed his clothes, twice.