Reply to 7 year old hates camp.

Forum Index » Classes, Workshops, Camps, and Playgroups

Reply to "7 year old hates camp."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son just told he that he hates camp and that he doesn’t feel safe.  Turns out he’s nervous about meeting new people. [b]He has some social anxiety, but meeting new people is a part of life, so we will work on some coping mechanisms and strategies[/b].  We try not to move him around to too many camps.[/quote]

I think this is a good approach.  My 7yo is shy about entering new social situations, being the center of attention, etc.  Our response has been to enroll her in camp (and extracurriculars) since age 4, to help her realize that she can actually handle these situations.  The result has been that she's now much less anxious in these situations (although it still pops up on occasion).  She now generally likes camps, even when we've started adding new ones recently.  I think if we avoided camps etc., she'd still be a lot more tentative and anxious about them.

I just saw this article this morning about parents "accommodating" kids' anxiety--basically, letting them avoid anxious situations--and how that's actually not the best approach.  CBT and other evidence-based approaches say that kids should actually face their fears, and they learn over time that they don't have to avoid.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/15/711213752/for-kids-with-anxiety-parents-learn-to-let-them-face-their-fears[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics