Primary Park Drama...

*Running Diary of a Conflict between two of my Campers...
**The names are also changed for privacy

6/29/12

It’s the first day of Primary Park, a five week summer day camp for local first and second graders. This starts my fifth year of working at the camp and it has been a great time; so much has gone on and an “unauthorized” book could probably be written about it. Well, anyway, with pretty much the same staff returning and the “problem” campers moving to the next camp we had the feeling that, in the words of our Assistant Supervisor, “It’s going to be a great summer.” 

It was a fairly boring first day, some crying kids, nervous parents, and generally just going through the motions. Things didn’t pick up until we went into our groups for the afternoon. At Primary Park, the campers are divided into four groups (two for first grade and two for second grade), this year they happened to be named after national disasters; I am in the Blue Tsunamis, a second grade group. 

There are less second graders this year and the kids in the group are not that dynamic, or so I thought. There wasn’t much action until we were outside, the last thing of the day. The girls were on the playground playing a game known as Family. 

Family is a game that I cannot stand and I believe it was presented by the most hated counselor I have ever seen the previous summer. In this game everyone takes on a role of a family member; so someone is the mom, children, etc. It’s just creepy; you hear kids crying “mommy” and stuff like that. There is something unnerving about it. 

Well anyway, I was just kind of looking around on the playground trying to ignore this game going on behind me. I notice Olivia walking over towards the game. Olivia is a fan favorite among the counselors. She is tiny, cute, and knows it too. She is always happy and cheerful, which endears her to the counselors. Olivia goes to that part of the playground and decides to block the entrance by making a “password” for someone to get in. Olivia and this other girl, Stephanie, sort of start arguing about this; and I feel that it is my counselor duty to intervene and tell them that there are no passwords and the like. 

Despite my “warning” Olivia and Stephanie proceed to go at it. They argue about how one tattles on the other and that they aren’t nice to each other. Stephanie even threatens that she’ll tell their second grade teacher that “Olivia acts like a nice girl, but really she’s not and is mean.” 

First let’s paint a little picture of Stephanie. If she weren’t six or seven years old I would describe her as the “B word that rhymes with witch” but I cannot do that; yet you still get the idea. She talks in this annoying tone that comes across as bossy and know-it-all. In reality she is sort of mean to the other campers. 

Like the good counselor that I am I tell the girls to be nice to each other and maybe they should stay away from each other. Olivia heeds the advice and decides to go to the bathroom- Stephanie lingers with the two other girls there and what she says actually shocked me. She pulls this black object out of her pocket, my mind starts to race...is it a knife? is it a rock? I had no idea. Then Stephanie says, “I’m going to settle this once and for all.” What the hell does that mean? At that moment I realize that the object in her hand is a Hot Wheels car. Now I’m a bit worry because I might have to break up a fight or something. I thought for sure Stephanie was planning on throwing it at Olivia. 

Stephanie and her friends begin to walk away and I begin to turn around to keep an eye on the situation, as I’m turning around Olivia is right there. Olivia implores me to believe that she really is a good girl and she doesn’t know why Stephanie is so mean to her. My advice for her was to stay away from Stephanie, that I would keep an eye on the both of them, and to let me know if anything happens. I look up and notice that Stephanie and her two friends are conversing in a huddle; Olivia is convinced that they are talking about her. Before I can say anything it is time to go inside because the day is over. 

I obviously shouldn’t be saying this, but that incident made my day. I hope that there are a few more blowups like that because it adds a little energy to the day. My fingers are crossed....