October 18, 2011 | 6:10 pm

Overcoming my homesickness…

Posted by Julia Bendis

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This morning was a bit of a somber morning for me…  Our six-grader headed out to a four-day overnight Science camp today!  I have to emphasize the OVERNIGHT part since it was the only thing I heard when first learning about this little adventure, which might as well had said a six-month-overnight-camp.  It all sounds the same to me, because all I hear is: my child will be without his Mommy!  It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t called me that in years, I still think of him as a three-year-old.  Surely, I am not the only Mother (or the last one) to worry about her child going away for days at a time, however I suspect I might be in the minority when it comes to everything else I did prior to his departure…

That would include:

- packing eight pairs of underwear and socks instead of the recommended four, as specifically stated in the camp flyer

- packing four pairs of pants instead of the recommended two, again as specifically stated in the camp flyer

- packing enough toothpaste to last him til next year instead of the recommended one-trial-sized-tube

- packing shampoo and conditioner to last at least two weeks because it was listed under the “optional items” section

- packing four pairs of pants instead of the recommended two

- packing eight shirts instead of the recommended four

- and of course packing enough snacks for the long 30-minute ride to the camp completely ignoring the section marked “what NOT to pack”, because like a good Jewish Mother I never let my kids leave the house with a little something to nosh on “just in case”.

The last few days leading up to today I kept thinking how much my son will be homesick, and me not being there to comfort him.  The more I thought about that, the more I started to notice that it doesn’t seem to phase him one bit that he will be gone for a whole four days!  All he cared about was getting his friends into the same cabin, and whether or not he can try sneaking in his iPod…  Every night I snuggled next to him telling him not to worry, that he will have a great time and to call me for any reason, no matter how small it may be.  And every night AFTER that I would overhear him telling his brother to be good and “distract Mom as much as possible because she will be a total mess!”  Nice.

When we finally dropped him off at school this morning, I quietly told my son that I love him and that I might cry a little bit when he goes.  He turned to me and with a straight face replied: “I know you love me Mom.  It’s OK, you can cry.  Just go do it over there somewhere, not too close OK?”

Not much more I can say after that, except for: looks like I’m the one with the homesickness problem, not my child.

October 10, 2011 | 6:32 pm

Youth Football and the big dilemma

Posted by Julia Bendis

At a flag football game for my 1st grader, I couldn’t help but enjoy my son’s aggressiveness.  I know how wrong that sounds, however after trying soccer, baseball, basketball and tennis I’m happy to see that he finally at the old age of six, found his sport! Besides, its only flag football and tackling is not allowed.  Although that doesn’t seem to stop my child from jumping on other players.  He sleeps, eats and lives for football, and was very angry that he isn’t allowed to play tackle or as he calls it “regular” football.

My fake phone calls to the officials at “regular” football league insisting that they allow this six-year-old to play went unanswered, which was not good enough for my kid.  He begged that I physically go to their offices and demand that they let him play, since he is READY!
Having no problem with lying, I went ahead and told him that after much consideration the football officials decided he needs to wait a couple years before getting slammed and pummeled onto.  My son’s response?  “Nobody will slam me down, I’m too quick and awesome for that to happen!”

Seeing that this issue won’t be going away any time soon, I’m secretly hoping that he will pick another sport in the near future.  Before I ever had kids I always said that I’d never let mine play a savage game like football, but now I don’t see much of a choice.  This brings me to another issue.  How do Mothers allow, and seem to be fine with their young children being shoved, and slammed into while playing football or lacrosse or any other violent sport?  Am I the only parent that thinks its completely wrong to allow your ten-year-old to be physically hurt?

Where are the rules and guidelines about starting boys too young in violent sports?  Shouldn’t there be some kind of a mandatory law that says you can’t play before the age of fifteen, or at least til your child has facial and body hair?

America is the only country in the world that has the most boys between the ages of 10 and 18 with head traumas and concussions!  I truly hope my son changes his mind about playing football, I’d hate to be the only Mother in Orange County to ban my kid from playing tackle football…

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