A week in

First week of the new schedule and it wasn’t without a bump - Theo got in trouble for roughhousing at camp; I don’t think it was particularly serious, but it was serious enough that the other kid complained to his mother, twice, and that mother complained to the camp director and the camp director pulled me aside at pick up one day. She thankfully wasn’t overly concerned - I’m sure navigating these complaints is a huge part of her job - and said she’d talk to both kids to get the full story, since upsetting words were used like “he choked me” and even worse, “he touched my penis”. That one had me really afraid - are my kids going to be kicked out of camp the first week of summer? Is Theo going to be labeled as some disturbed sexually deviant kid? I was a nervous wreck all week as this was going on. According to Theo, he had been roughhousing with this kid and had actually put him in a choke hold for a second (sigh), so a stern talking to was had over that. He and Bobby do that stuff all the time, and we’ve warned them you can’t play like that with other kids (and really shouldn’t be playing like that at all). The touching penis part - I’m sure was an accidental part of the play. But still, it was all pretty awful. Both boys were flummoxed by this and said the kid was their friend that they play with all the time. On Friday the camp director brought them together and said no more rough play and that is hopefully it. But I’ll admit I’m afraid at drop offs and pick ups now, that an angry mom is going to confront me and accuse my kid of being a sexual predator. I know if I thought some kid was doing that to my kid I’d be freaked out and angry. These kids have never been in any kind of trouble and in fact are always the “we just love your kids!” boys in every situation so it’s been really upsetting. I’m worried maybe this other kid is the type of kid to complain about every little thing and is going to keep accusing Theo of things…only time will tell. Yet another reason to not feel great about leaving town again on Thursday for four days. I’m making contingency plans in case Theo is in fact kicked out. I don’t see it escalating to that point - I know Theo got the message - but I’m still scared. At least they have tomorrow off so I have one more day of not dealing with it.

In the meantime, I’m starting to worry, ever so slightly, about my actual turnout at my event this year. A month ago I said I was on track to have a huge year…but now, I’m not so sure. It’s been six weeks and I’ve maybe been getting one person a day, maybe less. My numbers have barely budged, and there’s almost no money coming in. Thankfully I don’t need it to survive at the moment, and it’s still so early. I know people won’t start thinking about this event in any real way until later in July and August. But based on how last year went, how there was no last-minute push, I’m starting to wonder if, instead of getting 600 more people, I may only get 200-300 more, keeping my numbers closer to last year’s, which would be…not great. Of course less income means less taxes, so financially it may turn out more or less the same. And I know the hotel being full is a big deterrent - I started giving up the dream of having a huge year when that happened. But it’s post-covid and everything is weird and shitty. Everything is expensive and everyone is broke. For the first time in twenty years I’m worried about my future doing this event - with the hotel getting greedier and greedier, I’m concerned getting a contract I can live with for 2026 may not be possible here or anywhere else; I’m trying to get creative about different spaces but no matter what, everything costs a fortune. I’d have to charge $1000 a ticket and nobody will pay that. I’m supposed to be going into my 25th year with a huge turnout and a bright future; instead I’m terrified my great run of running this event has finally come to an end. I’m genuinely scared.