A Week Away

My kids are leaving me soon. 

Going off to have fun and laugh until they almost pee in their pants. 

To soar through the air on a zip-line and run amok in the woods. 

Because they are going to summer camp. 

For a week. 

And I'm gonna be at home. 

All alone. 

Because my husband will be at work and it'll be me and the dogs at home. 

And the hermit crabs. 

Zoe has been to camp before. 

This is her fourth year going to cancer camp. 

But Gigi gets to go this time. 

And I'm so deeply excited for Gigi to do this. 

To experience this wonderful week of independence and to find her inner braveness (cause she's a nervous nellie) I have to, for a second, make it all about me. 

Maybe more like a minute. 

Or 20. 

Because I'm going to miss them. 

Horribly. 

I don't know how people do it. 

Let their kids go and not miss them. 

Hell, I miss them when they spend the night at my parents' house down the street. 

How do divorced parents do it?

Or those parents who send their kids to boarding school in Switzerland?

Or those people who let their kids go to college?

I mean, what am I going to do when they go to college?!

I'm having trouble with camp. 

So I tell myself "geesh Jen, pull it together!"

This is what you want for them. 

You want them to be carefree and to experience the joys of summer camp life. 

Because Zoe needs this. 

And she's thrived because of it. 

And now it's Gigi's turn to gain her self. 

To know that there's this great and magical world away from mom. 

Because at this point in her life, Gigi still thinks I'm the greatest person on the planet. 

I'm MOM. 

All powerful and all knowing MOM. 

So go girls. 

Go to camp. 

Have a fantastic week of sitting around a campfire, rowing canoes, swimming, and dancing. 

Do not miss mom and dad. 

Make friends. 

Giggle and snort from telling corny jokes to each other. 

Hide under your sleeping bag after hearing ghost stories. 

Prank the boy cabins. 

Do it all and then rush into my arms when dad and I come to pick you up. 

We can't wait to hear all of your stories about your week at camp. 

All the way back home. 

Home sweet home...